Med Hypotheses
2015[Jul]; 85
(1
): 49-57
PMID25911556
show ga
The history of physiologic cellular-molecular interrelationships can be traced
all the way back to the unicellular state by following the pathway formed by
lipids ubiquitously accommodating calcium homeostasis, and its consequent
adaptive effects on oxygen uptake by cells, tissues and organs. As a result, a
cohesive, mechanistically integrated view of physiology can be formulated by
recognizing the continuum comprising conception, development, physiologic
homeostasis and death mediated by soluble growth factor signaling. Seeing such
seemingly disparate processes as embryogenesis, chronic disease and dying as the
gain and subsequent loss of cell-cell signaling provides a novel perspective for
physiology and medicine. It is emblematic of the self-organizing,
self-referential nature of life, starting from its origins. Such organizing
principles obviate the pitfalls of teleologic evolution, conversely providing a
way of resolving such seeming dichotomies as holism and reductionism, genotype
and phenotype, emergence and contingence, proximate and ultimate causation in
evolution, cells and organisms. The proposed approach is scale-free and
predictive, offering a Central Theory of Biology.
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