Within the last few years, knowledge about vitamins has increased dramatically, resulting in improved understanding of human requirements for many vitamins. This new edition of a bestseller presents comprehensive summaries that analyze the chemical, physiological, and nutritional relationships, as well as highlight newly identified functions, for all recognized vitamins. These include vitamins A, D, K, E, B6, B12, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, pantothenic acid, biotin, folate, choline, and ascorbic acid. Keeping the tradition of the previous volumes, the Handbook of Vitamins, Fifth Edition provides an updated, contemporary perspective on vitamins in human nutrition. Bringing together leading experts in molecular biology, biochemistry, and physiology, the book contains substantial revisions in every chapter, covering vitamin metabolism, including human requirements, clinical aspects of deficiency, vitamin-dependant cell signals and gene regulation, and roles as coenzymes. The chapter on epigenetics has been updated and expanded to include novel findings about vitamins not previously considered in studies of nutrient-dependent epigenome modification. The book also contains a new chapter on genome stability, highlighting current understanding of vitamin-genome interactions in the evolution of the human genome and the functional consequences of human genetic variation. Maintaining its status as a high-quality reference, this handbook incorporates new discoveries into an updated and revised fifth edition.

Molecular nutrition (the study of interactions between nutrients and various intracellular and extracellular molecules) is one of the most rapidly developing fields in nutritional science. Ultimately, molecular nutrition research will reveal how nutrients may affect fundamental processes such as DNA repair, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. This book is the only single complete volume available reviewing the field of molecular nutrition. It contains contributions from leading international experts, and reviews the most important and latest research from various areas of molecular nutrition.

Cell signaling is at the core of most biological processes from the simplest to the most complex. In addition to unicellular organisms possessing the essential ability to receive inputs with regard to nutrient availability and noxious stimuli, the cells in multicellular organisms require signaling from adjacent, as well as distant cells to maintain normal internal function, including growth, differentiation, and homeostasis. Conversely, the etiology of many disease processes, such as those involving immune system dysfunction and tumor development, have been traced to aberrant cell signaling. Nutrients and Cell Signaling, in presenting contributions from a wide array of experts in the field, fully delineates the role of nutrients in cell signaling. The text emphasizes broad concepts and covers all major groups of nutrients. Contributors discuss the role of carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements in essential processes such as cell proliferation, immune function, and DNA repair. The editors have organized the work to provide select examples organized under these contemporary research areas: -Nuclear receptors, transcription factors, and signaling cascades -Amino acids, lipids, and glycation -Insulin release, signaling, and insulin resistance -Calcium-dependent signaling -Feeding and nutrient homeostasis Nutrients and Cell Signaling answers the need in the post-genomic era, for an authoritative resource that provides an in-depth understanding of how these complex and dynamic biomolecular networks control cell function. Those professionals and students in molecular biology, nutrition, biochemistry, as well as any branch involved with cell signaling andfunction will find this book to be an invaluable tool in promoting both understanding and further inquiry.