Analytical Calorimetry in Biochemical and Clinical Applications

I. INTRODUCTION

Calorimetry has played a fundamental historical role in the development of the basic thermodynamics of chemical systems. In this sense, calorimetry is one of the oldest methodologies in the field of chemistry. However, the application of calorimetric measurements to analytical problems has been much slower to develop, the most dramatic increases in use occurring within the last 15 to 20 years. In the fields of biochemistry and analytical biochemistry, only in the past 7 to 10 years has there been significant growth in the applications of calorimetery, largely as a result of new instrumentation capable of the high sensitivity required in dealing with the small quantities of reactants generally involved in biochemical systems. These recent developments have resulted in widespread interest in the capabilities of various calorimetric methods in the study of problems as diverse as enzyme substrate determination, the detailed structural information in lipid-bilayer thermal transitions, and the study of the behavior of living cells. Analytical calorimetry is a dynamic, growing field in biochemistry and is providing a basis for practical application to clinical, as well as to fundamental, research problems.