This book deals with the subject of neuroinflammation and attempts to take the reader on a journey from the bench to the bedside. The microglia and their response to brain injury as well as the importance of the chemokine family are discussed. The relevance of neuroinflammation in experimental models of BSE, scrapie and vCJD as well as Alzheimer's disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis is investigated before proceeding to clinical aspects of neuroinflammation and its involvement in human disease pathophysiology. The book provides an excellent introduction to the field of neuroinflammation and its involvement in human neurodegenerative disease.

Inflammatory processes have been implicated in the pathophysiology of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke and mUltiple sclerosis. It is now widely accepted that the brain, considered to be an "immunologically privileged" organ, can exhibit immune and autoimmune responses, and it is these responses that may in fact be responsible for many neural pathologies. The participants of the workshop VI Preface Research over the past decade has demonstrated the pivotal role of the microglia in the neuroinflammatory process, and more recent work in the field of chemokines has firmly established their important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease states. Inevitably with the wealth of research being conducted in the field of neuroinflammation comes the hope of identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention in the inflammatory process which may im- pact on neurodegenerative diseases. The meeting "Neuroinflammation - From Bench to Bedside" aimed to cover the whole spectrum of research currently being pursued in this exciting field, literally taking the participants from the bench - study- ing the importance of the microglia in the inflammatory process and the involvement, in particular, of the rapidly expanding chemokine family in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases - to the bedside - and the possibilities for novel treatment of disorders as di- verse as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Designed to enable newcomers to electrophysiology to choose appropriate preparations and techniques for in vitro studies in vertebrate neurobiology. Emphasizes techniques involving the glass micropipette and other recently developed methods, supplementing easy-to-follow instructions with illustrative schemes, examples of original records, photomicrographs, key word listings, comprehensive reference tables and a list of suppliers and key equipment and reagents.