The Hormones: Physiology, Chemistry and Applications, Volume I covers roles of hormones in a wide diversity of vital processes. This volume consists of 16 chapters that discuss the chemistry of hormones, their role in organisms other than mammals, and some aspects of the animal physiology. After a brief history of hormone research studies, this book goes on exploring the chemistry, physiology, assay, and mechanism of action of plant, insect, and crustacean hormones. The subsequent chapters examine the biochemistry, physiology, and assay methods of hormones of the gastrointestinal tract, parathyroid gland, pancreas, and ovary. These topics are followed by discussions on the chemistry and metabolism of other hormones, such as progesterone, androgens, and adrenal cortical and anterior pituitary hormones. The final chapters consider the role of ovarian, pituitary, and thyroid hormones in mammary growth, as well as the mechanism of hormonal control of lactation. Endocrinologists, applied biologists, physiologists, biochemists, and researchers in various fields of medicine will find this book of great value.

Frontiers of Biological Energetics, Volume I: Electrons to Tissues consists of papers presented at the 1978 International Symposium on ""Frontiers of Biological Energetics: Electrons to Tissues,"" held at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Professor Britton Chance and of the 50th anniversary of the Johnson Research Foundation. The symposium aims to bring together scientists from many different disciplines to discuss the common problems of biological energetic from different standpoints and from various levels of cellular organization. Organized into three parts, the book begins with a discussion on the electrochemical interactions. It then continues to describe the electrons, protons, and energy. Lastly, the book presents new instrumental approaches to cellular biophysics.

The Porphyrins, Volume I: Structure and Synthesis, Part Ais the first in a series of seven volumes and covers topics like nomenclature, purification, and structural determination of porphyrins, metalloporphyrins, and other related compounds. This volume serves to be a critical review of the topics covered and presents a complete and comprehensible discussion on the chemistry and biochemistry of porphyrins. The chapters in the text tackle the history and geochemistry of porphyrins and related systems. Also covered and discussed in the chapters is the synthesis of porphyrins from mono-, di-, and tetrapyrrolic intermediates. The isolation and modification of porphyrins from natural sources are also discussed. Other related compounds are also included, such as metallo-, aza-, and N-methylporphyrins, and their synthesis and properties. This book is a good introduction and reference for students studying in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry.

Microsomes, Drug Oxidations, and Chemical Carcinogenesis, Volume I, documents the proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Microsomes and Drug Oxidations held in Ann Arbor, July 1979. The symposium reviewed progress in the understanding of scientific and biomedical problems from a biochemical, biophysical, pharmacological, and toxicological perspective. The book contains 117 contributions made by researchers at the symposium, which are organized into three sections. The papers in Section I focus on the chemical and physical characteristics of cytochrome P-450. Section II examines the mechanisms of action of cytochrome P-450 and related enzymes. The studies in Section III deal with the influence of membrane structure and protein synthesis on electron transfer components. This book seeks to aid future progress in understanding the complexities of metabolic transformations by these versatile enzyme systems that act on physiologically important lipids as well as on a wide array of foreign substances, including drugs, anesthetics, industrial chemicals, food additives, pesticides, carcinogens, and nonnutrient dietary chemicals.

This is the first of a 4-volume module that is an introduction to the study of cell chemistry and physiology. It is not intended to be encyclopedic in nature but rather a general survey of the subject with an emphasis on those topics that are central to an understanding of cell biology and those that are certain to become of increasing importance in the teaching of modern medicine.We have followed what appeared to as to be the logical divisions of the subject beginning with proteins. Allewell and her colleagues stress the point that proteins fold spontaneously to form complex three-dimensional structures and that some of them unfold with the help of proteins called chaperones. Michaelis-Menten kinetics are shown by Nelsestuen to describe the behaviour of enzymes in the test tube. The formalism is particularly useful in the search for agents of therapeutic value, as exemplified by methotrexate. Uptake by mammalian cells of substrates and their metabolic conversions are discussed by van der Vusse and Reneman. However, both Welch and Savageau expound the view that the cell is not simply a bagful of enzymes. The biologist is urged by Savageau to abandon Michaelis-Menten formalism and apply the Power Law. The biologist is also told that the approach to arriving at a theory of metabolic control would have to be one of successive approximations requiring the use of the computer. Information gained from comparative biochemistry is shown by Storey and Brooks to have shed new light on mechanisms of metabolic rate depression and freeze tolerance, and to be applicable to organ transplantation technology. We are reminded that enzyme adaptation is partly the result of the presence of a hydrating shell of vicinal water that stabilises conformation of the enzyme. Vicinal water, according to Drost-Hausen and Singleton, lies adjacent to most solids and protein interfaces. The kinks or breaks observed in the slope of the Arrhenius plot are attributed to structural changes in vicinal water. Regulation of cell volume is shown by Hempling to involve regulation of cell water. It could be that the osmo-receptor or volume detection system is a protein that links the cytoskeleton to specific K and C1 channels. Additionally, it is interesting that aquaporins, which are water channel-forming membrane proteins, are now known to exist in both renal and extra-renal tissues. One of the renal porins is affected by vasopressin. We then pass on to protein synthesis (Rattan) and other important topics including protein glycosylation (Hounsell), methylation (Clarke), ADP-ribosylation (Pearson) and prenylation (Gelb). Among the four types of lipids attached to membrane proteins are the prenyl groups. Ford and Gross in their chapter on lipobiology drive home the point that there is an accumulation of acyl carnitine and lysophospholipids during myocardial infarction.