Advances in Organ Biology – serie

Acknowledgement This book is the result of a collective effort. Due to an oversight, mention of three of the contributors who played an especially decisive role in bringing the work to fruition was omitted from the book. They should share fully in the intellectual credits accruing from this publication. I would therefore like to acknowledge and thank the following for their outstanding contributions to editing the work: Dr. Morten Dornonville la Cour (MD, Dr. Med. Sci.) solicited and edited the chapters on retina, RPE, choroid, vitreous, immunology, and sclera. Dr. la Cour is a Lecturer, Eye Department, Copenhagen University Hospital, specializes in vitreoretinal surgery, and frequently lectures in the international scene. A trained mathematician, he has done research in retinal pigment epithelial physiology in the laboratories of Drs. Thomas Zeuthen and Sheldon Miller. Dr. Friedrich P.J. Diecke and Dr. Elliott M. Kanner also provided invaluable editorial assistance. Dr Diecke, who was formerly Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physiology, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, is a Professor Emeritus at that institution. His research has concentrated on membrane transport mechanisms in lens epithelial cells, corneal endothelial cells and peripheral nerve and on the regulation of vascular smooth muscle contraction. Dr. Elliott M. Kanner was born in Canada in 1970. He graduated from Yale University in 1992 with a BS/MS degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He received his PhD degree from the Rockefeller University in 1999 and his MD degree from Weill/Cornell in 2001. He is currently an Ophthalmology resident at Columbia University. Jorge Fischbarg, December 2005 This book explores the many recent novel ideas about the eye in a systematic and synthetic way. It includes both basic sciences and applications towards clinical research. Chapters include both anatomical and functional descriptions of the different ocular tissues and treatments of a few subjects of practical importance for ophthalmologists. This book is intended for students in basic biomedical science interested in the eye, as well as ophthalmologists a comprehensive source on recent developments in ocular research.* Combines basic science and practical opthalmological subjects * Written with the simplicity of a textbook, while maintaining the comprehensive and rigorous approach of science papers * Includes contributions by well-known experts

Retinoids have received considerable attention in recent years and due cognizance has been given to their versatility as biological response modifiers, as evidenced by the virtually explosive growth of literature in this field in the past few years. This volume has been designed to give a current state-of-the-art picture of retinoids. The perceived potential of retinoids in the treatment of certain disease stated has initiated attempts at identifying and synthesizing new retinoid derivatives with definable and selective effects on aberrant biological phenomena. Appropriately, therefore, we begin with the chemistry of retinoids and their derivatives together with discussions of their biological activity. Major advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms by which retinoids modulate physiological and phenotypic traits of cells. The transduction of retinoid signaling by the mediation of nuclear receptors of the steroid/thyroid receptor superfamily has now been studied extensively and the cloning and defining the characteristics of these receptors has been a focus of discussion in this volume. Retinoids also markedly modulate the transduction of extracellular signals such as those imparted by growth factors and hormones, and thus actively influence and control cellular proliferative patterns. Retinoids can alter epidermal growth factor receptor expression (Kawaguchi et al., 1994), responsiveness to thyroid hormone (Esfandiari et al., 1994; Pallet et al., 1994), inhibit the proliferative responses of hematopoietic progenitor cells to granulocyte colony stimulating factor (Smeland et al., 1994), and modulate secretion on interleukins by leukaemic cells (Balitrand et al., 1994), among other things. This has obvious implications for pharmacological manipulation of deregulated growth (Dickens and Colletta, 1993; Mulshine et al., 1993). Apoptosis is another component in the regulation of growth control. Apoptotic cell death is influenced by several agents and retinoids may function by interfering with apoptotic pathways of regulation of growth control and quite legitimately, therefore, the importance of this aspect of retinoid function has been duly recognized here.

These volumes differ from the current conventional texts on bone cell biology. Biology itself is advancing at breakneck speed and many presentations completely fail to present the field in a truly modern context. This text does not attempt to present detailed clinical descriptions. Rather, after discussion of basic concepts, there is a concentration on recently developed findings equally relevant to basic research and a modern understanding of metabolic bone disease. The book will afford productive new insights into the intimate inter-relation of experimental findings and clinical understanding. Modern medicine is founded in the laboratory and demands of its practitioners a broad scientific understanding: these volumes are written to exemplify this approach. This book is likely to become essential reading equally for laboratory and clinical scientists.

Living organisms exhibit specific responses when confronted with sudden changes in their environmental conditions. The ability of the cells to acclimate to their new environment is the integral driving force for adaptive modification of the cells. Such adaptation involves a number of cellular and biochemical alteration including metabolic homeostasis and reprogramming of gene expression. Changes in metabolic pathways are generally short-lived and reversible, while the consequences of gene expression are a long-term process and may lead to permanent alternation in the pattern of adaptive responses.

The heart possesses remarkable ability to adapt itself against any stressful situation by increasing resistance to the adverse consequences. Stress composes the foundation of many degenerative heart diseases including atherosclerosis, spasm, thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and congestive heart failure. Based on the concept that excessive stress may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease, attempts were made to design methods for preventing of myocardial injury. Creation of stress reactions by repeated ischemia and reperfusion or subjecting the hearts to heat or oxidative stress enables them to meet the future stress challenge. Repeated stress exposures adapt the heart to withstand more severe stress reactions probably by upregulating the cellular defense and direct accumulation of intracellular mediators, which presumably constitute the material basis of increased adaptation to stress. Thus, the powerful cardioprotective effect of adaptation is likely to originate at the cellular and molecular levels that compose fundamental processes in the prophylaxis of such diseases.

Volume six of the Advances in Organ Biology series contains state-of-the-art reviews on myocardial preservation and cellular adaptation from the leading authorities in this subject.