The Editorial Board of the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology apparently did not hurry in suggesting production of a volume on glucagon since the present opus is number sixty-six in the series. This fact is even more striking if we consider that 34 volumes published over about eight years will separate the books on glucagon from those on insulin on library shelves, whereas only a few microns separate the cells manufacturing these two polypeptides within the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas! Numerous factors have probably caused this dicrimination; four of them are: First, insulin deficiency or resistance is the cause of one of the most serious and distressing diseases, diabetes mellitus, which affects millions of people, whereas glucagon deficiency is apparently an extremely rare disorder, for which detailed reports are published of individual cases whenever they occur. Second, since its discovery in 1921 by BANTING and BEST, insulin has been irreplaceable for the treatment of the most severe forms of diabetes, whereas, in contrast, glucagon was until recently considered a relatively minor therapeutic agent. Third, whereas insulin is a compound which has been well characterized since the pioneering work of SANGER and its biosynthesis clearly identified by STEINER and his co-workers, glucagon, also well characterized chemically, has suffered from its parenthood with the so-called "glucagon-like immunoreactive substances", an incompletely defined series of immunologically related polypeptides present in the gut, the pancreas and some other parts of the body.

Following the monographs by STRAUB (1924) and LENDLE (1935), this is the third contribution to the "Pharmacology of Cardiac Glycosides" within the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, which was founded by ARTHUR HEFFTER and con tinued by WOLFGANG HEUBNER. Because of the need created by the length of time that had elapsed since LENDLE'S work, the editorial board requested the rapid ap pearance of this 56th volume, which represents current knowledge of the pharma cology and clinical pharmacology of cardiac glycosides. In order to avoid any delay, numerous authors were invited to contribute because shorter contributions take less time to prepare and are consequently more up-to-date. The disadvantage is that some overlap between certain chapters could not be avoided, despite the editor's efforts. Overlapping can, however, actually be useful, in that differing opinions may be provided and topical issues discussed from varying viewpoints. This re minds the reader that scientific horizons in medicine should often be widened or revised. I would like to thank DR. ALANNA Fox and DR. K. ANANTHARAMAN for their help and advice in the revision of certain chapters. I am also grateful to Springer Verlag, and particularly to MR. WINSTANLEY and MR. EMERSON, for their contribu tion to the completion of this volume through translation and corrections. In con clusion I would like to thank MRS. WALKER, MR. BISCHOFF, MRS. SEEKER, and MR. BERGSTEDT of Springer-Verlag for their helpful support."

Thirty years have elapsed since the first description by S. A. BERSON and R. S. Y ALOW of the basic principles of radioimmunoassay (RIA). During this period of time, RIA methodology has been instrumental to the growth of many areas of biomedical research, including endocrinology, oncology, hematology, and pharmacology. It has done so by providing a relatively simple universal tool allowing, for the first time, the detection of endogenous mediators that are present 12 10 in body fluids at concentrations as low as 10- _10- M. The fundamental nature of this discovery and the wide-ranging fall-out of basic and clinical knowledge derived from its application have been acknowledged by the many honors tributed to its pioneers, including the Nobel Prize awarded to Dr. Y ALOW 10 years ago. Although several excellent books have been published during the past decades covering various aspects of RIA methodology, we felt the need, as pharmacologists, for a comprehensive discussion of the methodological and conceptual issues related to the main classes of mediators of drug action and to drugs themselves. Thus, we gladly accepted the challenge provided by the invitation to edit a volume of the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology on Radioimmunoassay in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. We tried to balance the emphasis placed on more general aspects of the RIA methodology and that on specific mediators.

The volumes on "psychotropic substances" in the Handbook of Experimental Phar macology series clearly show that the classical concept of this discipline has become too narrow in recent years. For instance, what substances are psychotropic is determined not by the criteria of the animal trial, i.e. by experimental pharmacology, but by their action on the psy che, which in the final analysis is only accessible to us in man. Psychotropic substances force experimental pharmacology (and thus also this Handbook) outside its tradition allimits, which have essentially depended on animal studies. The antipsychotics and antidepressants were not discovered in animal ex periments, but by chance (or more precisely, by clinical empiricism). Experienced psy chiatrists trained in the observation of patients recognised the efficacy of drugs, the beneficial effect of which nobody had dreamed of before: DELAY and DENICKER in the case of chlorpormazine, KLINE in the case of the monoamine oxidase inhibitors and KUHN in the case of imipramine. It was only after these discoveries that the pharma cologists developed experimental models of the psychoses in animal experiments. However, even today we still do not know with certainty which of the effects shown in animals is relevant for the clinical effect despite the vast abundance of individual investigations. For many years, this uncertainty led to the testing of antipsychotics (e.g. of the neuroleptic type) in models which actually produced the undesired effects."

Glycosmis is a clearly defined genus within the tribe Clauseneae of the Aurantioideae subfamily of the family Rutaceae comprising about 40 species (1). Its range of distribution is centered in south and southeast Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) and extends to south China and Taiwan as well as to New Guinea and north Australia. Exceptions are only cultivated species like the Chinese G. parvijiora (Sims) Little, formerly called G. citrifolia (Willd. ) Lindley, which became naturalized in tropical America and Africa (Angola) (1). The shrubs or small trees are unarmed and possess pinnate or simple leaves with translucent punctate glands emitting an aromatic odor when crushed. The axillary inflorescences are usually dispersed closed panicles with small white flowers. The fruits are mostly pink, reddish or white berries of about I cm in diameter with only one or two seeds. The genus name Glycosmis originates from the sweet smell of the flowers and the sweet taste of the fleshy pericarp of the fruits. A good field and herbarium character of the genus is that the buds of new leaves are usually covered with short rusty-red hairs. In spite of the good delimitation of Glycosmis from the other closely related Clauseneae genera Clausena, Micromelum, Murraya, and Merrillia and the already existing subrevisionary treatment by Stone (1), there are still many unresolved taxonomic problems at the species level.

The toxic properties of cadmium compounds have been well recognized in many species. There is little evidence to suggest a physiologic role for the metal. Rather, because of its long biologic half-life, cadmium acts as a cumulative poison, and even at quite low ambient concentrations, it can accumulate in mammals to values not insignificant in terms of critical toxic levels. The problem of cadmium toxicity has become especially important, as cadmium concentrations in the environment have begun to rise owing to a variety of human activities such as mining, the metallurgical industry, coal combustion, and the use of cadmium-containing fertilizers. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to assemble in one volume an up-to-date analysis of the mechanism of action of cadmium on biologic systems. Aspects of this field have repeatedly been reviewed in the past, and particular reference must be made to the volumes prepared by FRIBERG and collaborators from Sweden. Much outstanding work on cadmium has also been reported from Japan, and I am happy that investigators from both countries were able to contribute to the present volume. Obviously, this volume does not report a consensus by its contributors. The purpose of the work was to permit leading investigators in the field to present a critical review with sufficient documentation to support their interpretations and conclusions. A certain amount of overlap and disagreement between chapters was therefore unavoidable. The result, I hope, will be a useful state-of-the-art discussion.

Uric acid has attracted the attention of scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines, and in recent years dramatic progress has occurred within many of these disciplines. This volume is designed to fill void in the field. Major works in the past five years have provided comprehensive reviews of disorders of uric acid metabolism for the clinical (1-3) as well as short reports of recent progress for the interested scholar (4, 5). In Uric Acid the reader will find extensive reviews of relevant topics selected largely by virtue of recent progress in the field and written by those who, to a considerable extent, qre responsible for that progress. Seven chapters are dedicated to a description of uric acid synthesis, its control, diseases resulting from aberrations in the pathway, and effects of intermediates and end products of this pathway on other metabolic processes. The next five chapters describe our current understanding of the mechanisms by which uric acid is elimi nated by the organism. Then seven chapters review the factors responsible for the human "disease" produced by uric acid in the joints and kidneys. The final four chapters provide a summary of therapeutic approaches to control gout, the most important disease caused per se by uric acid."

Between 1950 and 1960, remarkable advances were made in the develQpment Qf antihypertensive drugs, but since then, prQgress has been less rapid. This dQes nQt mean that no. new drugs have been intrQduced: Qn the cQntrary, their number has increased sharply; but since the advent Qf the beta-adrenergic blQckers no. new pharmacQdynamic principle has been discQvered that CQuid be applied widely as an antihypertensive. This has nQt been fQr want Qf effQrts, because many attempts have been made to. find new ways and means Qf influencing blQQd- pressure regulatiQn Qr the mechanisms invQlved in the pathQgenesis Qf hypertensiQn. HQwever, the results Qf these endeavQrs have mQstly been disapPQinting. Even thQugh high blQQd pressure can be treated mQre satisfactQrily tQday than many Qther diseases, the success achieved in cQmbating Qne Qf man's mQst frequent ailments shQuld nQt induce cQmplacency, but rather stimulate research tQwards further imprQvements. The present standstill affQrds an QPPQrtunity to. review the field Qf antihy- pertensive agents, fQr it is unlikely that fundamentally new drugs will appear in the near future. AlthQugh greater knQwledge has been gained Qf the mechanisms Qf blQQd-pressure regulatiQn and Qf the pathQgenesis Qf hypertensiQn, these ad- vances have had no. direct cQnsequences in the search fQr new therapeutics.

The history of arterial hypertension is both long and short; long, since BRIGHT (1827) first related hardness of the pulse to hardness of the kidneys and hyper. trophy of the heart; short in that modern research began in the late twenties. Most of what we know of these diseases has been discovered in the past fifty years. The modern story should have begun in 1897 when an extract of kidney was shown to be pressor. But little was done with knowledge until about 1929 when the relationship of this kidney extract called "renin" to hypertension was pos. tulated. The pressor effects were, however, unlike most of those seen with sub. stances such as epinephrine or vasopressin. Plasma was required for action of renin and the active substance appeared to be protein. In 1939, it was shown that renin was not in itself a pressor substance but rather a proteolytic enzyme which produced a powerful pressor substance acting on a substrate synthesized by the liver. Later it was noted that the first definable step after the formation of this peptide was cleaving of the decapeptide which had little or no demonstrable activity, with loss of two amino acids to form the octapeptide called "angiotensin." Within a decade synthesis was achieved which made the substance available for world.wide study."

The protection of human health and food and fiber resources against the ravages of pests of many sorts is a continuous struggle by all people in the world. The use of chemical pesticides as an aid in this struggle is now also global. These chemicals are deliberately added to the environment for the purpose of killing or injuring some form of life. Because pesticides are generally less selectively toxic than would be desired, non-target species, including humans, must be protected from injury by these chemicals. This can only be achieved by thorough understanding of the comparative toxicology of these compounds, and by minimizing human (and other desirable species) exposure. The latter can only be achieved by sound regulatory policies that utilize scientific principles and data, properly tempered by both gaps in that data and sociologic and economic considerations. This book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Toxicology of Pesticides: Experimental, Clinical and Regulatory Perspectives" held in Riva del Garda on October 6-15, 1986. This NATO-ASI has been promoted by the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington at Seattle, by the Institute of Pharmacological Sciences, University of Milano and by the Giovanni Lorenzini Foundation, and has been sponsored by both the Society of Toxicology (USA) and the Italian Society of Toxicology.

If the numerous therapeutic acquisitions of the past few years have enriched very different fields of human pathology, it does seem that coronary pathology has been given very special attention, as witness the wide variety of antianginal medications placed at the disposal of the medical profession. There are various explanations for this state of affairs, one of them probably being that the medica- tions successively proposed do not fully satisfy the practitioner and another that the total number of individuals suffering from the clinicaI manifestations of coronary heart disease offers, by its size, a vast profit potential for the pharma- ceuticaI industry. This field of applications opens up such prospects that it has encouraged a prolific amount of competition between various research laborato- ries, and it is no exaggeration to say that every major firm has its individuaI anti- anginaI drug in its therapeutic cataIogue. A further factor has aIso contributed enormously to this proliferation of medi- cinal preparations intended for the treatment of angina pectoris: this is the rapid advance in our knowIedge of the physiopathoIogy of angina, which in turn has produced originaI concepts of pharmacological and biochemical research. As a result, there have emerged new substances whose action mechanisms have claimed to be best suited to the cardiovascular disorders responsible for cardiac pain.

The Fourth International Workshop on "In Vitro Effects of Mineral Dusts on Cells" was held on September 20 - 23, 1988 in Auberge Estrimont, Orford, Quebec, Canada. The emphasis of the N. A. T. O. Advanced Research Workshop was the use of cell and organ culture and lavage cell populations obtained from man and laboratory animals to elucidate cellular and molecular events occur ring after their interaction with fibrous and nonfibrous particulates, including metal compounds. In seven sessions, an international representation of scientists from 17 countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Federal Republic of Germany, India, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Union of South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Yugoslavia) presented recent research findings in the following areas: Epithelial cell injury and proliferation by minerals. Physico-chemical properties of minerals in relation to their biologic effects. Mechanisms of dust-induced pneumoconioses. Clinical and experimental studies. Mechanisms of cytotoxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. Oxidants, cytotoxicity and disease. Mechanisms of mineral-induced inflammation. Mechanisms of carcinogenesis. A session on "Questions, risk and public policy" provided a lively discussion on the relevance of in vitro experiments to carcinogenicity studies in man and their implications in the formation of regulatory policies. VI The organizing committee for this workshop was: Co-Chairs: B. T. Mossman (USA) and R. Begin (Canada) E. G. Beck (FRG) A. Lange (Poland) A. Brody (USA) P. Nettesheim (USA) R. C. Brown (UK) Q. Rahman (India) J. Bignon (France) K. Robock (FRG) Fisher G.

Introduction and Perspectives This volume is based on the proceedings of the 7th annual symposium on the topic Neuroimmune Circuits, Infectious Diseases and Drugs of Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland, Oc- ber 7-9, 1999. This symposium, as in the past, focused on newer knowledge concerning the relationship between the immune and nervous systems with regards to the effects of drugs of abuse and infections, including AIDS, caused by the immunodeficiency virus. Presentations discussed the brain-immune axis from the viewpoint of drugs of abuse rather than from the subject of the brain or immunity alone. The major aim of this series of conferences has been to clarify the consequences of immunomodulation induced by drugs of abuse in regards to susceptibility and pathogenesis of infectious diseases, both in man and in various animal model systems. The recreational use of drugs of abuse such as morphine, cocaine, and marijuana by large numbers of individuals in this country and around the world has continued to arouse serious concerns about the consequences of use of such drugs, especially on the normal physiological responses of an individual, including immune responses. Much of the recent data accumulated by investigators show that drugs of abuse, especially opioids and cannabinoids, markedly alter immune responses in human populations as well as in experimental animals, both in vivo and in vitro.

This book has its origin in my experience as a teacher of pharmacokinetics in many universities in four different continents. It was not my intention to write a popular book; what distinguishes this one from many others on the same subject is its large use of algebra and calculus. For this I make no apologies; in fact a serious study of pharmacokinetics without the help of mathematics is, in my opinion, impossible. The exact definition of many pharmacokinetic quantities, even the most common, and the correct use of many equations, even the most simple, requires the constant use of mathematical language. On the other hand I have made a considerable effort to use only elementary algebra and elementary calculus, as commonly taught in most introductory university courses. For the few exceptions, when less common mathematical concepts were needed, I have supplied the necessary explanations in four appendices. The first three chapters are a general introduction to the scientific method. Chapters 4 to 12 show different specific methods to deal with pharmacokinetic pr- lems. There is considerable overlap among those chapters; this is intentional and its p- pose is to convince the reader that every problem can be solved in more than one way, including ways that were not mentioned in this book and that intelligent readers can find for their own pleasure. Chapters 13 to 17 show how different parameters of importance in pharmacokinetics can be exactly defined and measured.

The intestine, particularly the small bowel, represents a large surface (in the adult 2 human approximately 200m ) through which the body is exposed to its environment. A vigorous substrate exchange takes place across this large surface: nutrients and xenobiotics are absorbed from the lumen into the bloodstream or the lymph, and simultaneously, the same types of substrate pass back into the lumen. The luminal surface of the intestine is lined with a "leaky" epithelium, thus the passage of the substrates, in either direction, proceeds via both transcellular and intercellular routes. Simple and carrier-mediated diffusion, active transport, pinocytosis, phagocytosis and persorption are all involved in this passage across the intestinal wall. The term "intestinal permeation" refers to the process of passage of various substances across the gut wall, either from the lumen into the blood or lymph, or in the opposite direction. "Permeability" is the condition of the gut which governs the rate of this complex two-way passage. The pharmacologist's interest in the problem of intestinal permeation is twofold: on the one hand, this process determines thebioavailability of drugs and contributes significantly to the pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics of xeno biotics; on the other hand, the pharmacodynamic effects of many drugs are manifested in a significant alteration of the physiological process of intestinal permeation.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

The scientific collaboration between the United States and Japan in the field of cancer goes back many years. In this successful international collaboration cancer chemotherapy has been one of the most productive areas. Pioneers such as YOSHIDA, UMEZAWA, SHEAR, and GOLDIN established firm links of mutual trust and respect in the period after the Second Great War. Japanese drugs, such as mitomycin C and bleomycin have become mainstays of clinical oncology in the U. S. and throughout the world. Many drugs developed in the U. S. have become established in Japanese cancer therapy. Within the cancer chemotherapy field the antitumor antibiotics rank as one of the most important groups. In the U . S. -J apanese collaboration this group of drugs has taken the paramount role. The Japanese, under the leadership of U mezawa, are considered to be among the most innovative and productive in this area which has also had great emphasis in the United States as part of the National Cancer Institute's drug development program and in the pharmaceutical industry. This extended collaboration in general oncology, and chemotherapy in particular, has received increased impetus by and support from the official U . S. -J apan Joint Agreement on cancer research, which was established in 1974 between the National Cancer Institute and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. One of the subsections of this agreement is cancer therapy with emphasis on chemotherapy.

In their monumental work "The Cactaceae", BRITTON and ROSE (I9) record 1235 species belonging to the three tribes which constitute the family of the Cacti. The actual number of the species must be con- siderably higher. Cacti occur frequently in tlie more arid and less accessible regions of the American Continent, nearly always within very narrow and definite borderlines. The habitat of a species is in many instances a single valley located in a remote, uninhabited region of the Cordillera. Thus the collection of flowering specimens fit for botanical identification is some- times extremely difficult. On the other hand, cacti are apt to develop individual variations in their characteristic morphological features, rendering the definition of a species difficult and often illusory. Specimens taken from their normal habitat to botanical gardens or arboreta often die, degenerate or stop flowering. Taking into account all these difficulties, it is not surprising to find considerable differences of opinion among botanists on the taxonomy of the cactaceae. A considerable number of species have not been well defined and in many cases different names have been given to the same species. The index of BRITTON and ROSE records not less than 7000 binomials.

During the early 1950's there appeared reports, from time to time of the presence among the products elaborated by actinomycetes of antifungal antibiotics which exhibited very similar and very characteristic multipeaked ultraviolet absorption spectra. In 1954, with a good number of examples on record, these spectra were analyzed and identified as those of straight-chain conjugated polyenes, comprising tetraenes, pentaenes, hexaenes and heptaenes (85, I30). These antibiotics have since been commonly referred to as the polyene antifungal antibiotics to distinguish them from a host of other miscellaneous antibiotics which also have antifungal properties. Within the next few years, reports of discoveries of new members of this class multiplied rapidly, and almost sixty are now known. Unquestionably, a number of these will eventually be found to be identical with others, as has already happened in several instances: for example, the tetraene "tennecetin" proved to be a rediscovery of pimaricin (34), and in the methyl- pentaenes "moldcidin E" has been identified with pentamycin (83), and "lagosin" appears to be indistinguishable from fungichromin (22). Those that have been purified have turned out to be of fairly high molecular weight (ca. 700-1300) and all appear to be substances of rather similar molecular structure. So far only three, pimaricin, fungi- chromin (lagosin) and filipin, have been structurally elucidated.

This two-volume treatise, the collected effort of more than 50 authors, represents the first comprehensive survey of the chemistry and biology of the set of molecules known as peptide growth factors. Although there have been many symposia on this topic, and numerous publications of reviews dealing with selected subsets of growth factors, the entired field has never been covered in a single treatise. It is essential to do this at the present time, as the number of journal articles on peptide growth factors now makes it almost im anyone person to stay informed on this subject by reading the possible for At the same time it is becoming increasingly apparent that primary literature. these substances are of universal importance in biology and medicine and that the original classification of these molecules, based on the laboratory setting of their discovery, as "growth factors," "lymphokines," "cytokines," or "colony-stimulating factors," was quite artifactual; they are in fact the basis of a common language for intercellular communication. As a set they affect es sentially every cell in the body, and in this regard they provide the basis to develop a unified science of cell biology, germane to all of biomedical research."

Over the past two decades a number of attempts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to collect in a single treatise available information on the basic and applied pharmacology and biochemical mechanism of action of antineoplastic and immunosuppressive agents. The logarithmic growth of knowledge in this field has made it progressively more difficult to do justice to all aspects of this topic, and it is possible that the present handbook, more than four years in preparation, may be the last attempt to survey in a. single volume the entire field of drugs em ployed in cancer chemotherapy and immunosuppression. Even in the present instance, it has proved necessary for practical reasons to publish the material in two parts, although the plan of the work constitutes, at least in the editors' view, a single integrated treatment of this research area. A number of factors have contributed to the continuous expansion of research in the areas of cancer chemotherapy and immunosuppression. Active compounds have been emerging at ever-increasing rates from experimental tumor screening systems maintained by a variety of private and governmental laboratories through out the world. At the molecular level, knowledge of the modes of action of estab lished agents has continued to expand, and has permitted rational drug design to playa significantly greater role in a process which, in its early years, depended almost completely upon empirical and fortuitous observations."

Proteomics is an introduction to the exciting new field of proteomics, an interdisciplinary science that includes biology, bioinformatics, and protein chemistry. The purpose of this book is to provide the active researcher with an overview of the types of questions being addressed in proteomics studies and the technologies used to address those questions. Key subjects covered in this book include: * an assessment of the limitations of this approach and outlines new developments in mass spectrometry that will advance future research * high-throughput recombinant DNA cloning methods used to systematically clone all of the open reading frames of an organism into plasmid vectors for large scale protein expression and functional studies such as protein-protein interactions with the two-hybrid system * protein structure * an overview of large-scale experimental attempts to determine the three-dimensional structures of representative sets of proteins * computational approaches to determining the three-dimensional structure of proteins.Proteomics provides a starting point for researchers who would like a theoretical understanding of the new technologies in the field, and obtain a solid grasp of the fundamentals before integrating new tools into their experiments. Written with attention to detail, but without being overwhelmingly technical, Proteomics is a user-friendly guide needed by most biologists today.

The first three chapters of Vol. 3 of Bio-organic Marine Chemistry deal with the chemistry and function of peptides. Chapter 1 by Ireland and coworkers serves as an introduction to marine-derived peptides. It is arranged phyletically and encompasses the entire range from dipeptides to a compound with 95 amino acid residues. Peptides involved in primary metabolism and hence belonging to the realm of macromolecular biochemistry are excluded. However, it might be mentioned in passing that the dividing line between large and small molecule chemistry is continually becoming less distinct. Not only are more compounds of intermediate size, from 1,000 to 10,000 dalton, being discovered, but instruments and techniques, particularly in mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance have been developed for their structural elucidation by what is considered small molecule methodology. Two groups of peptides are discussed in separate chapters. Biologists who have observed and described the mating behavior of diverse species of marine invertebrates have long surmised that a chemical mechanism might be operating in many cases of individual as well as mass fertilization. The chemical activators of sea urchin sperm prove to be a series of peptides, whose structures and activity are discussed by Suzuki.

At the end of the initial meeting on Primary and Secondary Metabolism of Plant Cell Cultures at Schloss Rauischholzhausen, it was decided to convene similar events on a regular basis midway between the International Congress for Plant Tissue and Cell Cul ture. We felt it was necessary to bring representatives of the research teams working in this field together to assess progress as well as to discuss future directions. The Plant Biotechnology Institute of the National Research Council of Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was chosen to be the site for the second symposium held in 1988. The theme of this meeting was "The Regulation of Primary and Secondary Metabol ism in Plant Cells" and judging by the contributions published in this volume it was a timely and actual one indeed. I would like to thank my organizing committee and my research group for their efforts, the National Research Council of Canada for the financial assistance and the participants for their contributions which all contributed to make this symposium a success. A special thank you to Mrs. L. -Blashill and R. Gallays for their assistance in hosting this event. Last but not least I would like to thank our publisher, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg for their deci sion to publish the proceedings of this and future symposia.