THE CELLULAR GLYCOCALYX AND ITS BIOPHYSICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS

Biological cell is a basic dynamic structural and functional entity of a living being. Their molecular make-up exhibits varied physicochemical and molecular functional complexities. These lead to the effective manipulation of their overall behaviour and ensure their survival in stressful living conditions. Such conditions include invasion of pathogens, toxins and most of the physiological disorders and make efforts to ensure its sustainability. Glycocalyx, cell membrane, cytoskeleton along with cell organelles are the participants in this adaptive pursuit. Although innumerable investigations are reported but still there exists many lacunae in the various functional mechanisms. As one dives deeper in the subject to get the tunnel view of these processes, one encounters numbers of doubts. It seems to be important to have better understanding of the intricacy of dynamic regulations of a cell with respect to its reorientation, sensing the stimuli, transduction of physical and biochemical/molecular cues and ability to respond. This presentation is an effort to understand the functional effectiveness of glycocalyx during various physiological and some common pathological conditions.