Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems

Citation

Truskey, G. A., Yuan, F., & Katz, D. F. (2009). Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems (2nd ed.). Pearson. (First edition: Prentice Hall, 2003.)

Chapter Summary

The book is organized in three parts, with an opening introduction and a closing mathematical appendix. The authors, all faculty in biomedical engineering at Duke University, present it as a text for a one-semester advanced undergraduate or graduate course in biotransport, in which engineering fundamentals are developed in the setting of specific biological problems. The opening chapter of each part introduces the relevant engineering concepts through a biological context, and a book-concluding chapter draws the parts together through examples of whole-body transport. The second edition adds a chapter on bioheat transfer (Chapter 17); the other chapters listed below form the common core.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The opening chapter sets the scope of biotransport and the way the book links biological, chemical and physical processes in biomedical applications.

Part A: Introduction to Physiological Fluid Mechanics (Chapters 2–5)

Chapter 2, Conservation and Momentum Balances, lays out the basic balance equations for fluid flow. Chapter 3, Conservation Relations for Fluid Transport, Dimensional Analysis and Scaling, extends them and adds dimensional analysis as a tool for deciding which effects matter. Chapter 4, Macroscopic Form of Conservation Relations and Applications of Momentum Transport, works with integral balances. Chapter 5, Fluid Flow in the Circulation and Tissues, applies this material to blood flow and flow through tissue.

Part B: Fundamentals and Applications of Mass Transport (Chapters 6–10)

Chapter 6, Introduction to Mass Transport, opens the part by introducing mass transport. Chapter 7, Diffusion with Convection or Electrical Potentials, adds bulk flow and electrical effects. Chapter 8, Transport in Porous Media, treats transport through tissue and other porous structures. Chapter 9, Transvascular Transport, concerns movement across the vessel wall, and Chapter 10, Solvent and Solute Transport across the Kidney Glomerulus, applies the machinery to one specific physiological filter.

Part C: The Effect of Mass Transport upon Biochemical Interactions (Chapters 11–17)

Chapter 11, Mass Transport and Biochemical Interactions, opens the part by combining transport with reaction. Chapter 12, Oxygen Transport from the Lungs to the Tissues, follows oxygen along its path through the body. Chapter 13, Ligand-Receptor Kinetics on the Cell Surface and Molecular Transport within Cells, moves to the cell scale, and Chapter 14, Cell Adhesion and Cell Signaling, applies transport thinking to adhesion and signaling. Chapter 15, Transport of Drugs and Macromolecules in Tumors, is a drug-delivery application. Chapter 16, Transport in Organs and Organisms, takes up the whole-body examples that the publisher describes as the book's concluding synthesis. Chapter 17, Heat Transfer in Biological Systems, is the bioheat chapter new to the second edition.

Appendix: Relevant Mathematical Concepts

The appendix collects the mathematics the chapters use.

Key Concepts

Part A: Fluid mechanics (Chapters 1–5)

• Conservation and momentum balances: the equations that govern fluid motion, developed at the start of the book.
• Dimensional analysis and scaling: reducing a problem to its controlling dimensionless groups.
• Macroscopic balances: integral forms of the conservation relations applied to a whole system.

Part B: Mass transport (Chapters 6–10)

• Diffusion with convection or electrical potentials: transport of a solute driven by more than concentration alone.
• Porous media: transport through tissue treated as a porous structure.
• Transvascular transport: movement of solute and solvent across vessel walls, with the kidney glomerulus as a case.

Part C: Transport and biochemistry (Chapters 11–17)

• Transport coupled to reaction: mass transport interacting with biochemical interactions.
• Ligand-receptor kinetics: binding at the cell surface together with transport inside cells.
• Whole-body transport: transport in organs and organisms, where the parts of the book are combined.
• Heat transfer in biological systems: the bioheat treatment added in the second edition.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Engineering concepts introduced through biological problems. The publisher stresses that each part opens with a chapter that develops the engineering concepts in a specific biological context, and that concepts are applied immediately after they are developed.
• Analytical solutions emphasized. The stated aim is physical insight and a first-order level of understanding, which suits readers who want to build and critically analyze models rather than only run software.
• Worked examples and problems throughout. Each chapter includes worked examples and homework problems with analytical and numerical solutions; the second edition has roughly 25 percent new problems and about 20 percent revised ones.
• Clear architecture. Fluid mechanics, then mass transport, then transport coupled to biochemistry, then a whole-body synthesis, gives a course a natural sequence in which each part uses the earlier ones.

Limitations

• Mathematically demanding. The book is pitched at advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and it includes an appendix of mathematical concepts. Readers without prior transport or differential equations will need more preparation.
• Selective coverage. The chapters concentrate on circulation, the kidney, oxygen delivery, cell-scale binding, tumors and heat. Molecular transport across membranes and epithelia is not a topic of any chapter title, so readers who need it should add a specialist text.
• Heat transfer only in the second edition. The bioheat chapter was added in 2009. The first edition (2003) does not contain it, so edition matters for courses that need heat transfer.
• Size of a one-semester course. Seventeen chapters plus an appendix is more than one semester usually holds, so instructors choose.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the advanced, integrated text in the biotransport list. Introductory Transport Phenomena is an undergraduate adaptation of the Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot approach, teaching momentum, heat and mass transfer in parallel; Rubenstein, Yin and Frame's Biofluid Mechanics is an introductory text on fluid mechanics and transport in the circulation; Basic Transport Phenomena in Biomedical Engineering applies chemical engineering principles to physiological systems and medical devices at the undergraduate level. These are the natural preparation.

Roselli and Diller's Biotransport covers momentum, heat and mass transport in living systems with one consistent method and fits a similar slot, and Friedman's Principles and Models of Biological Transport is a graduate text focused on transport across membranes and epithelia. Truskey, Yuan and Katz is the choice when a course wants fluid mechanics, mass transport and reaction in one book organized around physiological problems; Friedman is the complement for membrane transport.

How to Use This Book

It is meant for a one-semester advanced undergraduate or graduate course in biotransport. Before starting, readers should have calculus and differential equations and some prior exposure to fluid mechanics or transport; the appendix on mathematical concepts covers the tools the chapters use.

• Core: Chapter 1; the fluid mechanics of Part A (2–5); the mass transport fundamentals of Part B (6–9); Chapter 11 on transport and biochemical interactions.
• Choose by interest: Chapter 10 (kidney glomerulus), 12 (oxygen), 13–14 (receptors, adhesion, signaling), 15 (tumors), 17 (heat transfer).
• Finish with: Chapter 16, which draws on all three parts.

Work the end-of-chapter problems, including the numerical ones, since the book is built around model building and analysis. Read each part's opening chapter with attention to the biological setting it gives the engineering concepts, since the later chapters of the part build on that framing.