Abstract
Water and solutes transport in epithelial tissues is an important mechanism for maintenance of the homeostasis of internal environment; volume and composition of extracellular fluid. Molecular technologies and advancement of the genome projects have identified plenty of membrane proteins that mediate epithelial transport. Membrane transport proteins can be classified into channel, solute carrier, ABC transporter, and pump. Each of the categories includes many families; for example, solute carrier consists of 43 families and 298 genes in human. Reflecting the importance of transport proteins, many hereditary diseases are proved to be due to gene mutations of transport proteins. Cross talk between clinical information and basic cell molecular biology data of these hereditary diseases will further advance our knowledge of transport proteins and their diseases.
