The Victorian Newsletter (Fall 1990)

The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of Modern Language Association by the Western Kentucky University and is published twice annually.Antinomianism or Anarchy: A Note of Oscar Wilde's "Pen, Pencil and Poison" / William E. Buckler -- Sara Coleridge: The Gigadibs Complex / Nathan Cervo -- "On Tuesday Last, at St George's...": The Dandaical Wedding in Dickens / Patricia Marks -- Ruskin to the "Elusive" Mr. Horn: An Unpublished Letter from a Neglected Friendship / Warren Dwyer -- "Three Cups in One": A Reading of "The Woodspurge" / Andrew Leng -- Faith of Our Mothers: Elizabeth Gaskell's "Lizzie Leigh" / Joanne Thompson -- The Problem of the Man-Trap in Hardy's The Woodlanders / Jonathan C. Glance -- Sartor Redivivus, or Retailoring Carlyle for the Undergraduate Classroom / Linda K. Hughes -- Identification of Literary, Historical and other References in Trollope's The Mac dermots of Ballycloran (1847), The Three Clerks (1858), Rachel Ray (1863), The Vicar of Bullhampton (1870), Ralph the Heir (1871), and The American Senator (1877) / James Means -- Books Receive

The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 1979)

The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of the Modern Language Association by the University of Florida and is published twice annually.Déjà vu Inverted: the Imminent Future in Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean / William E. Buckler -- Rights, Reason, and Redemption: Charlotte Brontë's Neo-Platonism / Sara Moore Putzell -- Tractarian Aesthetics: Analogy and Reserve in Keble and Newman / G. B. Tennyson -- Bruising the Serpent's Head: Typological Symbol in Victorian Poetry / George P. Landow -- High Tea and Matzo Balls: Religion in the Victorian Jewish Novel / Linda Gertner Zatlin -- Hardy, Barnes, and the Provincial / Donald Wesling -- Father and Mother in Father and Son / E. Pearlman -- Time in Nicholas Nickelby / Patricia Marks -- In Which a Poet is Frightened by a Lion: The Philosophical Context of Mill's Poetic Theory / Jonathan Loesburg -- Books Received -- Victorian Group New

Carotid body chemosensory responses in mice deficient of TASK channels

Background K+ channels of the TASK family are believed to participate in sensory transduction by chemoreceptor (glomus) cells of the carotid body (CB). However, studies on the systemic CB-mediated ventilatory response to hypoxia and hypercapnia in TASK1- and/or TASK3-deficient mice have yielded conflicting results. We have characterized the glomus cell phenotype of TASK-null mice and studied the responses of individual cells to hypoxia and other chemical stimuli. CB morphology and glomus cell size were normal in wild-type as well as in TASK1−/− or double TASK1/3−/− mice. Patch-clamped TASK1/3-null glomus cells had significantly higher membrane resistance and less hyperpolarized resting potential than their wild-type counterpart. These electrical parameters were practically normal in TASK1−/− cells. Sensitivity of background currents to changes of extracellular pH was drastically diminished in TASK1/3-null cells. In contrast with these observations, responsiveness to hypoxia or hypercapnia of either TASK1−/− or double TASK1/3−/− cells, as estimated by the amperometric measurement of catecholamine release, was apparently normal. TASK1/3 knockout cells showed an enhanced secretory rate in basal (normoxic) conditions compatible with their increased excitability. Responsiveness to hypoxia of TASK1/3-null cells was maintained after pharmacological blockade of maxi-K+ channels. These data in the TASK-null mouse model indicate that TASK3 channels contribute to the background K+ current in glomus cells and to their sensitivity to external pH. They also suggest that, although TASK1 channels might be dispensable for O2/CO2 sensing in mouse CB cells, TASK3 channels (or TASK1/3 heteromers) could mediate hypoxic depolarization of normal glomus cells. The ability of TASK1/3−/− glomus cells to maintain a powerful response to hypoxia even after blockade of maxi-K+ channels, suggests the existence of multiple sensor and/or effector mechanisms, which could confer upon the cells a high adaptability to maintain their chemosensory function