Ion Channels and Pumps in Skeletal Muscle

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to participate in a special issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences entitled Ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle.

With more than 600 individual organs, which represent approximately 40% of the total body weight, skeletal muscles, when considered together, constitute the largest organ in the human body. As well as a contractile organ, which enables locomotion, posture, and breathing, skeletal muscles are a key metabolic organ, fundamentally important for the maintenance of systemic metabolic homeostasis, and an endocrine organ, which secretes hundreds of myokines that drive various adaptations in skeletal muscle and many other organs and organ systems, including immune system.

Skeletal muscles are also a major site of transmembrane and intracellular ion transport, which plays essential roles not only in muscle excitability and contractility, but also transmembrane transport of nutrients and intracellular signaling. Furthermore, being the largest store of K⁺ ions in the body, skeletal muscles buffer fluctuations in extracellular K⁺ concentrations, thus helping to prevent potentially dangerous hyperkalemia and hypokalemia. Not surprisingly, ion transporters, such as Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase and sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA), impose a significant energetic cost on skeletal muscle, which requires tight coordination between regulation of ion transport and energy metabolism in skeletal muscle. Finally, recent advances concerning biology of mechanosensitive cation channels, such as PIEZO, have highlighted novel potential mechanisms by which mechanical forces, such as during contractions, might modulate skeletal muscle function, thus adding a further layer of complexity to regulation of ion transport and its functional consequences in skeletal muscle.

Manuscripts that address ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle under physiological and pathophysiological conditions and/or ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle as pharmacological targets, including original research, methodological studies, reviews, as well as theoretical studies, which offer new insights into the understanding of experimental results or suggest new experimentally testable hypotheses, will be taken into consideration. The scope of the call includes, but is not limited to:

• The role of on ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle in health and disease.
• The importance of ion transport in skeletal muscle for maintenance of systemic ion and energy homeostasis.
• Regulation of ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle.
• The role of ion transport in skeletal muscle in secretion of myokines.
• Experimental models, including cell cultures and isolated organs, for investigation of ion transport in skeletal muscle.
• Effect of physical (in)activity on the ion transport in skeletal muscle.
• Effects of ageing on the ion transport in skeletal muscle.
• Cross-talk between ion transport and energy metabolism in skeletal muscle.
• Energetics of ion transport in skeletal muscle.
• Dysfunction of ion transport in skeletal muscle in the context of metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
• Pharmacological modulation of ion transport in skeletal muscle: ion channels and pumps as pharmacological targets.
• The role of skeletal muscle innervation and effects of denervation on ion channels and pumps in skeletal muscle.
• Ion channels and pumps in the context of sarcopenia: dysfunction of ion transport as the cause and consequence of muscle weakness and wasting.

Dr. Sergej Pirkmajer
Prof. Dr. Paola Lorenzon
Dr. Alexander V. Chibalin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.