This translation from Russian into English of the monograph Hematopoi- etic and Lymphoid Tissue in Culture by E. A. Luriya provides us for the first time with a comprehensive review of the massive amount of work carried out in the USSR in this important area of biological research. Historically, the pioneering tissue culture studies of Maksimov, Popov, Chasovnikov, and their colleagues working in Russia in the early part of this century provided much of the impetus for subsequent studies on lymphopoiesis and hematopoiesis in vitro and much of the basic information used subsequently to achieve immune responses in vitro and to develop the methodology for cloning hematopoietic stem cells. Particularly welcome in this translation is the addition of the Appendix, in which Drs. Luriya and Fridenshtein describe in some detail the methodology that has been developed in their laboratories for the study of a variety of cell types in cell and tissue culture. For many of us, this description provides information that had previously not been accessible to us: porosity of millipore fIlters in relation to growth properties; colony-forming cell adhesiveness; pro- liferation kinetics of stromal cells; differential effectiveness of various media used for culture of liver cells; details of washing procedures for fIlter substrates used in culture.

This volume contains papers presented at the Fourth International Altschul Sympo- sium, held June 27-29, 1996, at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatche- wan, Canada. The Altschul Symposia Series are held in memory of Rudolf Altschul, a graduate of the University of Prague and a pioneer in the fields of vascular and nervous system biology. Dr. Altschul was head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Saskatchewan from 1955 to 1963. The Altschul Symposia are made possible by an endow- ment left by Anni Altschul, Dr. Altschul's wife, and by other contributions given by the sponsors listed at the end of this Preface. The objective of the Fourth Altschul Symposium, entitled Cell Biologv and Pathol- ogv of Myelin: Evolving Biological Concepts and Therapeutic Approaches, was to facili- tate the transfer of ideas on the biology and pathology of myelin from the research laboratory to the clinic by providing a forum for discussing the evolving biological con- cepts regarding myelin function in health and disease.

Although cell fusion is an omnipresent process in life, to date considerably less is still known about the mechanisms and the molecules being involved in this biological phenomenon in higher organisms. In Cell Fusion in Health and Disease Vol 1 & Vol 2 leading experts will present up-to-date overviews about cell fusion in physiological and patho-physiological processes, which further covers the current knowledge about cell fusion-mediating molecules. Volume 1 deals with Cell Fusion in Health and will cover aspects of cell fusion in fertilization, placentation, in C. elegans, in skeletal muscle development and tissue repair, and the use of cell fusion for cellular reprogramming and cancer vaccine development. Volume 2 focuses on Cell Fusion in Disease with a particular emphasis on the role of cell fusion in cancer development and progression. Thus, Cell Fusion in Health and Disease Vol 1 & Vol 2 represents a state-of-the-art work for researchers, physicians or professionals being interested in the biological phenomenon of cell fusion and beyond.

These proceedings contain selected contributions from the participants to the Fourth International Symposium on Dendritic cells that was held in Venice (Lido) Italy, from Oc tober 5 to 10, 1996. The symposium was attended by more than 500 scientists coming from 24 different countries. Studies on dendritic cells (DC) have been greatly hampered by the difficulties in preparing sufficient cell numbers and in a reasonable pure form. At this meeting it has been shown that large quantities of DC can be generated from precursors in both mice and humans, and this possibility has enormously encouraged studies aimed to characterize DC physiology and DC-specific genes, and to employ DC therapeutically as adjuvants for im munization. The possibility of generating large numbers of autologous DC that can be used in the manipulation of the immune response against cancer and infectious diseases has tremendously boosted dendritic cell research and the role of DC in a number of medi cal areas has been heatedly discussed."

The aim of this Atlas is to present the three-dimensional arrangement of the liver structures, which should be familiar to those who diagnose and treat diseases of the liver, particularly in an era when the methods of diagnostic imaging and surgical treatment are becoming increasingly sophisticated. For this purpose a series of corrosive preparations of the blood vessels and bile ducts of the liver was made and photographed. In addition to the normal situations, many frequent and rare variations are shown. The Atlas also shows some blood vessels that have not been adequately described or are not well-known in the reference literature, but are nevertheless of great importance in performing segmental liver resections.This Atlas takes a fresh approach to the subject. The method used allows the size, three-dimensional arrangement and structure of the blood vessels and bile ducts of the liver to be preserved. The majority of photographs were taken from the direction from which surgeons see the liver during an operation. This, together with the schematic presentations complementing most of the photographs, gives a further instructional value to the work. With colour photographs and explanatory text, the Atlas forms a basic guide to orientation inside the liver parenchyma, to understanding and diagnosing certain pathological processes and to planning surgcial procedures.

Recent advances in our understanding of the fundamental role of bioactive lipids in normal and abnormal physiology was the theme of the XVlth International Spring Sympo- 6-9, 1996 at the George Washington University School sium on Health Sciences held on May of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Over 250 participants shared their latest findings on fundamental mechanisms in lipid metabolism, transport, and signal transduction. Most of the papers presented at the plenary sessions have been collected in this volume, which is divided into seven parts. The focus of Part I is on the new roles that fatty acids and esters play in cellular function. These activities include regulation of gene expression, control of eicosanoid-me- diated responses, and intracellular calcium sequestration. Most biological effects of fatty acids, esters, and phospholipids are transmitted via the interaction of these lipid molecules with specific lipid binding proteins. The chapters in Part II detail the involvement of these in the transport of fatty acids, fatty acyl CoA esters, and phospholipids, and in the proteins modulation of the fatty acid-induced activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors. The study of arachidonic acid metabolism continues to be the subject of intense interest and research. A number of studies in Part III deal with the substantial differences between the constitutive prostaglandin H synthase isozyme (PGHS-l or COX-I) and the inducible form PGHS-2 (COX-2) regarding compartmentation, control, and expression.

During the last decade, rapid progress has been made in the area of microbial immu- nity. New conceptual frameworks have emerged with regard to the processing and presen- tation of peptides and nonpeptide antigens from microbes, especially bacteria, to T cells in the context of classical MHC class I and nonconventional MHC I molecules. Experimen- tal models have been instrumental in defining some of these pathways for generating pro- tective immune responses against microbes, which form the basis for the design of new vaccines. New evidence has stressed the importance of innate immunity in microbial in- fections. The concept of dichotomy within T helper cells has revealed the role of these cell types in resistance and susceptibility to microbial-mediated pathology. These latest devel- opments in microbial immunity are discussed in this volume. Natural killer cell development is known to be regulated by the presence of MHC class I antigens. Receptors for MHC class I molecules on NK cells have been discovered. Interaction of these receptors with their specific ligands leads to inhibition of cytotoxicity. Vinay Kumar and colleagues review NK cell differentiation and ontogeny, and functions of NK cells in experimental animals. Lewis Lanier discusses the role of a newly discov- ered molecule, DAP 12, in KIR and other receptor-mediated signal transduction in NK cells. Eric Long describes the regulation of immune response by inhibitory receptors.

Since the late 1960s, there has been an acceleration of research focused on understanding how the efferent ducts, the epididymis, and the vas deferens function with respect to the maturation and storage of spermatozoa and as hormone dependent tissues. Another major interest in the epididymis is that it is an attractive target for the development of male contraceptives. There are well over 16,000 peer reviewed articles in the literature on these tissues, their structure, gene expression, protein synthesis and function. Regular international meetings have been initiated that are dedicated to this field. Thus, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive reference volume that spans every facet of epididymal biology, from historical background to the most current results, from basic cell and molecular biology to clinical issues. Well-established experts from every part of the world have contributed to this volume. By necessity, each author was given page limitations so that many topics are not dealt with exhaustively. Whenever possible, references to more comprehensive discussion of specific topics are included.

The ISOTT 2001 local organizing committee was pleased to welcome over 140 delegates from around the world to the 29th annual general meeting of the International Society for Oxygen Transport to Tissue. The meeting was held in historic Philadelphia, USA, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania from August 11 to 15, 2001. In the tradition of ISOTT, the conference was a total immersion experience. Attendees were encouraged to eat together and spend their evenings relaxing together in a style that maximized exchange of ideas and interactions of younger scientists with their more senior colleagues. Delegates participated in a total of 122 presentations including poster displays, selected oral presentations, seminars by invited speakers and a round table discussion. In choosing invited speakers and oral presenters, special emphasis was placed on methods for oxygen measurement in living tissue and application of these technologies to understanding physiological and biochemical basis for pathology related to tissue oxygenation. All of the manuscripts contained in this volume underwent both an editorial and scientific review, and only those meeting both criteria have been published. However, while all efforts have been made to eliminate editorial errors, some have undoubtedly been overlooked, for which the editors apologize.

The purpose of these volumes is to provide a reference work for the methods of purifying many of the receptors we know about. This becomes increasingly important as full-length recep- tors are overexpressed in bacteria or in insect cell systems. A major problem for abundantly expressed proteins will be their purification. In addition to purification protocols, many other de- tails can be found concerning an individual receptor that may not be available in standard texts or monographs. No book of this type is available as a compendium of purification procedures. Receptor Purification provides protocols for the purification of a wide variety of receptors. These include receptors that bind: neurotransmitters, polypeptide hormones, steroid hormones, and ligands for related members of the steroid supergene family and others including receptors involved in bacterial motion. The text of this information is substantial so as to require its publica- tion in two volumes. Consequently, a division was made by grouping receptors depending upon the nature of their ligands. Thus, in volume 1 there are contributions on serotonin receptors, adrenergic receptors, the purification of GTP-binding proteins, opioid receptors, neurotensin receptor, luteinizing hormone re- ceptor, human chorionic gonadotropin receptor, follicle stimulat- ing hormone receptor, thyrotropin receptor, prolactin receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet derived growth factor receptor, colony stimulating factor receptor, insulinlike growth factor receptors, insulin receptor, fibronectin receptor, interferon receptor, and the cholecystokinin receptor.

The purpose of these volumes is to provide a reference work for the methods of purifying many of the receptors we know about. This be comes increasingly important as full-length receptors are overexpressed in bacteria or in insect cell systems. A major problem for abundantly expressed proteins will be their purification. In addition to purification protocols, many other details can be found concerning an individual receptor that may not be available in standard texts or monographs. No book of this type is available as a compendium of purification procedures. Receptor Purification provides protocols for the purification of a wide variety of receptors. These include receptors that bind: neurotransmit ters, polypeptide hormones, steroid hormones, and ligands for related members of the steroid supergene family and others, including receptors involved in bacterial motion. The text of this information is substantial, so as to require its publication in two volumes. Consequently, a division was made by grouping receptors by the nature of their ligands. Thus, in Volume One there are contributions on serotonin receptors, adrenergic receptors, the purification of GTP-binding proteins, opioid receptors, neurotensin receptor, luteinizing hormone receptor, human chorionic gonadotropin receptor, follicle stimulating hormone receptor, thyro tropin receptor, prolactin receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet derived growth factor receptor, colony stimulating factor recep tor, insulin-like growth factor receptors, insulin receptor, fibronectin receptor, interferon receptor, and the cholecystokinin receptor.

This volume of Cerebral Cortex is dedicated to Sir John Eccles, who was an active member of the advisory board for the series until his death in May 1997. His input as to what topics should be covered in future volumes of this series will be sorely missed. The present volume is concerned with neurodegenerative disorders and age related changes in the structure and function of the cerebral cortex, a topic that has attracted increasing interest as longevity and the number of aged individuals in the population increase. Although much of the research on the neurodegenerative effects of aging has been centered on Alzheimer's disease, most of the aging popu lation will not be afflicted by this disease. They will, however, be affected by the consequences of normal aging, so the first few chapters of this volume are con cerned with that topic. Chapter 1, by Marilyn S. Albert and Mark B. Moss, gives an account of the cognitive changes that accompany normal human aging. Chapter 2, by Mark B."

Dr. Howard House, founder of the House Ear Institute and House Ear Clinic often uses the analogy of planting a seed when referring to establishing the House Ear Institute in 1946. Two grateful patients of Dr. House put forth the idea that his knowledge and innovative skills could be used to expand the understanding of hearing impairment and its treatment. Those two early patients provided the "seed money" to begin the Institute. Since that time, the growth has been phenomenal from a one-man laboratory to a multidisciplinary facility boasting over 175 scien tists, physicians, and support staff, all dedicated to the advancement of otologic research and education. Six years ago after a half-century of remarkable success with prosthetic and device research, the Institute began cultivating a new field of endeavor-cell and molecular biology. Don Nielsen, then the Institute's Executive Vice President for Research and Scientific Director, began exploring the potential for hair cell regen eration and presented his ideas to the Board of Trustees. For a period of six months, we did a lot of fact finding to assess what role the Institute might take in this excit ing new field.

Hypoxia is a constant threat throughout life. International experts from many different fields, including clinicians, clinical researchers, and basic scientists, have contributed to this volume, presenting state-of-the-art information regarding normal and abnormal (pathophysiological) responses to hypoxia. The topics covered include visitors to high altitude, the latest developments on high-altitude cerebral and pulmonary edema, the brain in hypoxia, high-altitude headache, and similarities between ischemic and hypoxic injury to the brain. In addition topics are covered such as blood-brain barrier in hypoxia, hypoxia interactions with vascular growth, and how humans adjust to extreme hypoxia.

This volume contains refereed manuscripts prepared from presentations made at the 2ih annual meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT). The meeting was held in Hanover, NH, USA, at Dartmouth Medical School, the 3rd oldest medical school in the USA. ISOTT attempts to produce high quality pUblications on cutting edge topics relating to oxygen in living systerns. The goal is to allow contributors to contribute original data, as with a main-stream journal article, but also to voice individual opinions and ideas in a more relaxed scientific forum. The meeting brought together an international group of scientists who share a common interest in the measurement and role of oxygen in living systems. The organizers of ISOTT99 made a special effort to bring together people from industry, medicine, and basic sciences in order to improve the links in the chain of discovery through to application. As a result, this volume contains publications on a range of subjects. There are contributions from companies on modifiers of oxygen carrying capacity (allosteric modifiers of hemoglobin and infusible oxygen carriers or blood substitutes); technical reports on oxygen measurement devices including advances in near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging, oxygen electrodes, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, and fluorescence based measurements. There are medically related sections on modifying and measuring tumor oxygenation in order to improve therapy, assessment and interpretation of oxygenation in the central nervous system, and general issues relating oxygen to pathological conditions.

Recently, attention has been called to the role that microvascular organization plays in the functional morphology of all organs and tissues, both in normal and pathological conditions. Since its development by Murakami, the corrosion cast method for scanning electron microscopy has come to be considered one of the most efficient means in clarifying the three-dimensional features of the microcirculation of organs and tissues. Scanning Electron Microscopy of Vascular Casts: Methods and Applications was planned to supply fundamental and new information regarding microcirculation studies to general biologists, anatomists, pathologists and clinicians. The contributions to this volume, contain original findings and excellent electron micrographs obtained by using recently improved corrosion cast methods. The rich variety of papers in this book will be useful to many, and will provide both the basic and clinically oriented readers with good ideas, suggestions, and original and worthwhile information.

Numerous studies have proven the biological basis of memory formation and have begun to identify the biochemical traces and cellular circuits that are formed by experience, and which participate int the storage of information in the brain, its retention for long durations, and its retrieval upon demand. Cells in the nervous system have the capability of undergoing extremely long-lasting alterations in response to hormonal, pharmacological, and environmental stimulations. The mechanisms underlying this neuronal plasticity are activated by experiential inputs and operate in the process of learning and the formation of memories in the brain. This volume presents research areas which have not been highlighted in the past. In addition to studies on the involement of functional proteins in neuronal adaptation, this volume presents recent developments on the critical roles of bioactive lipids and nucleotides in these processes. In addition to the widely studied role of second messengers, a review of studies on extracellular phosphorylation systems operating on the surface of brain neurons is presented.The first section of the volume presents studies of basic mechanisms operating in a wide range of adaptive processes. The second section presents recent advances in investigations that have demonstrated the clinical implications of this research. These include: state of the art use of transgenic models in studies of molecular and cellular mechanisms implicated in familial Alzheimer's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; studies of specific proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease, including an adapter that binds to the beta-amyloid precurser protein (beta-APP) and the microtubular protein Tau and its membrane-bound counterpart. The advantages of using cell culture models for elucidating the causes of neuronal degeneration and for identifying mechanisms of neuroprotection are also presented among the chapters in the section on clinical implications.

The 'Formation of the Heart and its Regulation' reviews in considerable detail the major events in heart development and their control via genes, cell-cell interactions, growth factors and other contributing elements. In addition, there is an extensive and useful overview of the field of heart development taken as a whole. The book will appeal to all students and researchers working on cardiovascular development and to pediatric cardiologists.

The overall scope of this new series will be to evolve an understanding of the genetic basis of (1) how early mesoderm commits to cells of a heart lineage that progressively and irreversibly assemble into a segmented, primary heart tube that can be remodeled into a four-chambered organ, and (2) how blood vessels are derived and assembled both in the heart and in the body. Our central aim is to establish a four-dimensional, spatiotemporal foundation for the heart and blood vessels that can be genetically dissected for function and mechanism. Since Robert DeHaan's seminal chapter "Morphogenesis of the Vertebrate Heart" published in Organogenesis (Holt Rinehart & Winston, NY) in 1965, there have been surprisingly few books devoted to the subject of cardiovascular morpho genesis, despite the enormous growth of interest that occurred nationally and inter nationally. Most writings on the subject have been scholarly compilations of the proceedings of major national or international symposia or multi authored volumes, without a specific theme. What is missing are the unifying concepts that can often make sense out of a burgeoning database of facts. The Editorial Board of this new series believes the time has come for a book series dedicated to cardiovascular mor not only as an important archival and didactic reference phogenesis that will serve source for those who have recently come into the field but also as a guide to the evo lution of a field that is clearly coming of age.

In this day where research grants are the primary focus, many young investigators are thrown into neurosciences courses without any prior preparation in neuroanatomy. This book is designed to help prepare them by introducing many of the fundamentals of the nervous system. It represents the essentials of an upper level biology course on the central nervous system. It is not designed to be a clinical approach to the nervous system, but rather it approaches the nervous system from a basic science perspective that intertwines both structure and function as an organizing teaching and learning model. Medical and dental examples are included but the main focus is on neuroscience.

If one were to design the ideal nuisance for cell cultures, the resultant might well be similar to mycoplasmas. These micro organisms are very prevalent in nature, being found in the oral cavity, blood, the mucous membranes of the respiratory and uro genital tract and other tissues of both man and animals. They are relatively difficult to detect microbiologically and chemically. Lacking cell walls, they do not routinely produce turbidity in cell cultures and are resistant to antibiotics that act on cell walls. Mycoplasmas grow to high titers in cell cultures. Concen 7 8 trations of 10-10 colony forming units per ml of supernatant medium are representative. Additionally, more numbers are attached to cell membranes. Further, mycoplasmas have been shown to mimic in vitro effects of viruses and toxic chemicals. In various cell culture systems, mycoplasmas have been known to cause cell death, decrease or increase cell growth, affect virus tite s, induce interferon, cause chromosome damage, induce transformation, cyto pathic effects, alter phenotypic expression, and significantly alter metabolic pathways and products of cells. The presence of such high concentrations of mycoplasmas in cell cultures constitutes a true in vitro infection. Such infected cell cultures, with a 8 9 total of 10 _10 or more actively metabolizing mycoplasmas, have no place in controlled, standardized cell culture procedures. Numerous reports have been published on mycoplasma assay pro cedures, effects of infection, and preventive and elimination measures."

Over the last twenty-five years, there has been an extensive effort, still growing for that matter, to explore and understand the organization of extrastriate cor tex in primates. We now recognize that most of caudal neocortex is visual in some sense and that this large visual region includes many distinct areas. Some of these areas have been well defined, and connections, neural properties, and the functional consequences of deactivations have been studied. More recently, non invasive imaging of cortical activity patterns during visual tasks has led to an expanding stream of papers on extrastriate visual cortex of humans, and results have been related to theories of visual cortex organization that have emerged from research on monkeys. Against this backdrop, the time seems ripe for a review of progress and a glance at the future. One caveat important to emphasize at the very onset is that the reader may be puzzled or confused by the use of different terminologies. Individual investi gators commonly tend to favor different terminologies, but in general some prove more advantageous than others. As discussed by Rowe and Stone (1977) as well as by others, there is an unfortunate tendency for role-indicating names to lead to fixed ideas about function, in contrast to those that are more neutral and adaptable to new findings.

The discovery of the human T cell leukemia virus type I in the late 1970s heralded a new era in retrovirology. For the first time, it was demonstrated that a retrovirus could play a role in the development of a human disease, in this case adult T cell leukemia (ATL). Several years later, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic began, and it was dem- strated that a retrovirus, originally designated the human T cell lymp- tropic virus type 3, was the causal agent of this syndrome. This virus, later named the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), has since been extensively studied in terms of its pathogenesis as well as its ability to elicit immune responses. In that time, a tremendous amount of information has been obtained about the virus. Although recent drug regimens have been useful in significantly lowering viral loads and perhaps maintaining an asymptomatic state among individuals infected with HIV-1, an established "cure" for AIDS eludes us. In addition, the effective drug therapies are very expensive, and are not available to infected people in the third world, where greater than 90% of new infections occur. Furthermore, the development of viral resistance against the drug therapies is an additional concern. Despite extensive study, no effective vaccine has been developed. One of the problems in developing an effective vaccine against HIV-1 is the ability of the virus, particularly in the immunogenic envelop glycoprotein, to undergo amino acid hypervariability.

The Eighth Annual Research Conference of the American Institute for Cancer Research, held in Washington, D.C., September 3-4, 1998, was on the subject "Colon Cancer Prevention: Dietary Modulation of Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms," with participants representing various disciplines interested in this area. One of the speak ers provided an appropriate quote from 17th century physician Thomas Adams: "Pre vention is better than healing because it saves the labor of being sick," which aptly describes the need for the prevention of cancer. An overview of normal and abnormal colonic development emphasized that although the typical human colon undergoes 1013 cell divisions by age 60, with the asso ciated possibilities for error, relatively few colon tumors develop. Since dietary modu lation leads to extremely small changes in colonic cells over a long period, animal models are useful to time, observe, and delineate the events associated with colon cancer. In the development colon cancer, the inactivation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (Apc) gene is one of the earliest known events. Normally Apc downregulates the cellular protein beta-catenin, but this is lost during cancer development. Beta-catenin may itself be an oncogene; it has a short half-life, but it is stabilized by binding to is more prevalent in the cell nucleus, the gene shuttles caherin. Although the Apc between the nucleus and the cytoplasm."