K. Suzuki - Böcker

It is commonly acknowledged that the nervous system and the immune system, those most complex of networks, share attributes beyond their intricacy. Elements common to the two systems include memory, connectivity, flexibility and developmental selection of cellular composition by a rigorous process involving widespread programmed cell death. There is one salient difference: the cells of the immune system are predominantly in constant motion, while post-mitotic neurons and glia are largely fixed in place. Therefore, chemokines, initially characterized as leukocyte chemoattractants, have for the last one and one-half decades been intensely and productively studied in the contexts of inflammation, immunity and hematopoietic development.Only recently have the two fields, neurobiology and immunology, displayed mutual interests in chemokines. This convergence of the two tribes of investigators was catalyzed by the finding that SDF-1 (now known as CXCL12) and its receptor, CXCR4, exerted significant and similar functions in development of both nervous and immune systems. Indeed CXCL12 and CXCR4 were required, in an uncannily similar fashion, for retention of pre-B lymphocytes at sites of maturation in the bone marrow and of neuronal progenitors in the external granule cell layer of the developing cerebellum. Recent reports indicate that chemoattraction of cerebellar granule cells through CXCR4 can be suppressed by reverse signaling initiated by binding of soluble eph receptors to transmembrane ephrin B, thereby establishing a link between chemokine action and a cardinal patterning system of the developing nervous system. As may be anticipated when a dam breaks, a massive influx of correlative observations in the nervous and immune systems is likely to ensue.

This volume represents the state of current knowledge. To this end, introductory material for both systems is provided. Basic and advanced 'chemokinology' are presented. The recipe for making a nervous system (both ingredients and instructions for preparation) is described, as are the roles of chemokines and their receptors in making an immune system. Given their importance and complexity, CXCL12/CXCR4 interactions are separately treated in varying contexts.

The field of 'neurobiology of chemokines' has not lain fallow during the last ten years. During much of this time the principal focus has been on neuroinflammation. Linking the immune and nervous systems are explanations of the functions of chemokines and their receptors for resident brain macrophages, the microglia, the unique cerebrovascular endothelium and angiogenesis.

Understanding human disease is the goal of much of this research. New discoveries are being made and reported at a gratifying rate. It is expected that this volume will promote the steady production and application of useful new knowledge in this developing field. It provides a unique single-source database for basic neurobiology highlighting the fundamental aspects of chemokines and discussing the relations of chemokine science to animal models and human disease.

This book focuses on the role of gangliosides in three areas of medicine in which rapid progress has been made in the last decade: cancer, peripheral neuropathies and Alzheimer's disease. The volume further reflects progress in the pathogenesis of peripheral neuropathies, and the controversial role of gangliosides, also in therapeutic administration. There is a section on the role of gangliosides in neuronal differentiation and development and their receptor functions and cell surface activities. This excellent addition to the renowned Progress in Brain Research series also contains an invaluable plenary lecture on molecular basis of cell adhesion by Nobel prizewinner Gerald Edelman.

A century has already passed since FRIEDRICH MIESCHER, working at Strasbourg and Basel, began his study of protamine, one of the basic nuclear proteins of cells. It was first established by KOSSEL that protamine represents the simplest known protein. In the conviction that research into the nature of protamine would shed light on that of other typical proteins, a group of researchers in Germany followed MIESCHER and laid the foundations of protein chemistry. A general view of prot­ amines was thus built up by KOSSEL, working at Strasbourg, Berlin, Marburg an der Lahn, and Heidelberg, FELIX at Heidelberg, Munich, and Frankfurt am Main, and WALDSCHMIDT-LEITZ at Prague and Munich. Concepts and techniques established by these studies have been widely utilized for research on other typical proteins. The revolutionary advances in chemical and physical techniques after W orId War II extended the sphere of research to Tokyo in the Far East. Prof. FELIX' visit in 1955 greatly encouraged our research group in Tokyo. His death in August 1960 constituted a sad loss to protein chemistry and stimulated our group to assume responsibility for carrying on the studies. In the following decade we in Tokyo have been able to add a new development to the results on the chemical structure of protamines accumulated by the Eurqpean researchers over a period of about fifty years.

This book is intended to be a record of the Biotechnology-Assisted Re/Afforestation Project in the Asia-Pacific Region (BIO-REFOR) since 1992, conducted in coop­ eration with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (lUFRO). The purpose of the project is to promote exchanges of information of fundamental research on indigenous species in the Asia-Pacific Region in order to restore natural forests. The production, cultivation, and maintenance of forest tree species provide highly sustainable production systems that conserve soils, the microenvironment, and biodiversity The key technology for biomass production of forests is propagation via micropropagation or traditional propagation. However, there are many recalci­ trant species among useful forest trees to be propagated in large numbers. Recent advances in mycorrhizal technology and in vitro culture have made it possible to commercially propagate useful trees for re/afforestation. In this book, comprehensive information is provided on propagation, mycor­ rhizal inoculation, and reforestation of economically and environmentally impor­ tant forest trees, information that usually is available only in widely scattered re­ sources. Here, we include a wide area of the ecology and physiology of dipterocarps as a general overview, and then cover propagation techniques, mycorrhizal symbio­ sis, man-made forests, and biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region.