Old and emerging concepts on adrenal chromaffin cell stimulus-secretion coupling

This is na post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-017-2082-zThe chromaffin cells (CCs) of adrenal medulla play a key role in the control fo circulating catecholamines to adapt our body function to stressful conditions. A huge research effort over the last 35 years has converted these cells in the E. coli of neurobiology. CCs have been the testing bench for the development of patch-clamp and amperometric recording techniques and helped clarifying most of the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell excitability, Ca2+ signals associated to secretion and the molecular apparatus that regulates vesicle fusion This special issue provides a state-of-the-art on the many well-know and unsolved questions related to the molecular processes at the basis of CC function. The issue is also the occasion to highlight the seminal work of Antonio G. García (Emeritus professor at UNAM, Madrid) who contributed greatly to the advancement of our present knowledge on the CCs physiology and pharmacology. All the contributors of the present issue are distinguished scientists that are either staff members, external collaborators or friends of Prof. Garcí

A new diamond biosensor with integrated graphitic microchannels for detecting quantal exocytic events from chromaffin cells

The quantal release of catecholamines from neuroendocrine cells is a key mechanism which has been investigated with a broad range of materials and devices, among which carbon-based materials such as carbon fibers, diamond-like carbon, carbon nanotubes and nanocrystalline diamond. In the present work we demonstrate that a MeV-ion-microbeam lithographic technique can be successfully employed for the fabrication of an all-carbon miniaturized cellular bio-sensor based on graphitic micro-channels embedded in a single-crystal diamond matrix. The device was functionally characterized for the in vitro recording of quantal exocytic events from single chromaffin cells, with high sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio, opening promising perspectives for the realization of monolithic all-carbon cellular biosensors

Amending Contracts for Choreographies

Distributed interactions can be suitably designed in terms of choreographies. Such abstractions can be thought of as global descriptions of the coordination of several distributed parties. Global assertions define contracts for choreographies by annotating multiparty session types with logical formulae to validate the content of the exchanged messages. The introduction of such constraints is a critical design issue as it may be hard to specify contracts that allow each party to be able to progress without violating the contract. In this paper, we propose three methods that automatically correct inconsistent global assertions. The methods are compared by discussing their applicability and the relationships between the amended global assertions and the original (inconsistent) ones.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2011, arXiv:1108.014