ABSTRACT
Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland c Centre de Neurosciences Psychiatriques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois,
Département de Psychiatrie, Site de Cery, CH-1008 Prilly/Lausanne, Switzerland
pierre.marquet@chuv.ch and pierre.magistre@epfl.ch
Water represents up to 80% of the body mass; it is distributed evenly across
the intra-and extracellular compartments. Since the membranes of animal
cells are highly permeable to water [1], its movement across membranes is
in large part dictated by osmotic pressure gradients. Changes in extracellular
luid (ECF) osmolality cause water to low across cell membranes to
equilibrate the osmolality of the cytoplasm with that of the ECF.
