This detailed volume examines the latest techniques and protocols associated with zymography, the practice of detecting enzyme activity on electrophoretic gels. Sections cover subjects such as endopeptidase zymography, reverse zymography & in situ zymography, 2D zymography, as well as a variety of special cases. Written in the highly respected Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include brief introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and practical, Zymography: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal aid for a broad array of researchers from the fields of biological and medicinal science, as well as scientists working in clinical and diagnostic medicine, medical genetics, agricultural entomology, genetic monitoring of environmental pollution, and forensic science.

A collection of cutting-edge methods to analyze and manipulate epidermal cellprecursors and mature epidermal cells. These protocols cover different methods and models for culturing epidermal cells, for enriching very early epidermal progenitors, and for studying epidermal cell commitment and differentiation both in vitro and in vivo. Topics of special interest include the derivation, characterization, and utility of epidermal stem cells, mature epidermal cells and their characterization, and applications in regenerative medicine. These readily reproducible techniques broaden our understanding of the biology of epidermal cells and of their utility in normal tissue homeostasis and regenerative medicine applications.

This volume contains papers of 23 outstanding scientists who are working at the leading edge of metabolic regulation studies. Much of the volume focuses on novel aspects of signal transduction with emphasis on the role of phospholipase C in cell control mechanisms. One of the highlights of this volume is always the Special Symposium Lecture. This lecture was given for fifteen years by Nobel laureate, Sir Hans A. Krebs (UK) (now deceased). This year the Lecture was given by Nadir Maraldi, Director of the Laboratory of Cellular Biology and Electron Microscopy, University of Bologna, Italy. Professor Maraldi's presentation is on the important and novel subject of "Nuclear Proteins and Human Disease."

Volume thirty-eight in the series of the internationally acclaimed Advances in Clinical Chemistry, contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting edge microarray technology. In keeping with the tradition of the series, this volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application not only to both clinical laboratory diagnostics, but as well as practical basic science studies.This volume of Advances in Clinical Chemistry is an indispensable resource and practical guide for twenty-first century practitioners of clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, pathology, and clinical laboratory sciences in general.Selected Contents on:-Biochemical markers in atherosclerosis and cancer-Molecular diagnostics in metastatic diseases-Single cell mRNA analysis-Protein detecting microarray technology-Evaluation of nerve agents and poisoning

Still widely used as gene markers, isozymes detected by zymogram techniques have proven valuable in a range of other biological applications over the last few years. Along with these new applications, many new techniques have also emerged. Yet more than eight years since the Handbook of Detection of Enzymes on Electrophoretic Gels was first publish

In Volume I, Analysis of Cells and Tissues, we presented a range of protocols aimed at mapping and analyzing the expression of various molecules of pot- tial interest in metastasis research and for examining their production at the genetic level. In this second volume of metastasis research protocols, we move to the level of living cells and tissues and present methodologies applicable to examining metastatic behavior in vitro and in whole animal models. The methods described in the first section of this volume concentrate on the separation of cell lines with high and low metastatic potential, including the genetic modification of cell lines. The assay systems to test defined aspects of the metastatic cascade are then described in Part II and include cell migration assays, assays for matrix degrading enzymes, basement membrane degrading assays, adhesion assays, and assays of angiogenesis. The role of the specific elements of the metastatic cascade assayed in each of these systems in turn must of course be put into perspective relative to their roles in entire living organisms.

Inflammation has been described as the basis of many pathologies of human disease. When one considers the updated signs of inflammation, they would be vasodilation, cell migration, and, in the case of chronic inflam- tion, cell proliferation, often with an underlying autoimmune basis. Gen- ally, inflammation may be divided into acute, chronic, and autoimmune, - though the editors believe that most, if not all, chronic states are often the result of an autoimmune response to an endogenous antigen. Thus, a proper understanding of the inflammatory basis may provide clues to new therap- tic targets not only in classical inflammatory diseases, but atherosclerosis, cancer, and ischemic heart disease as well. The lack of advances in classical inflammatory diseases, such as rh- matoid arthritis, may in part arise from a failure to classify the disease into different forms. That different forms exist is exemplified in patients with d- fering responses to existing antiinflammatory drugs, ranging from nonresponders to very positive responders for a particular nonsteroidal an- inflammatory drug (NSAID). Though researchers have progressively unr- eled the mechanisms, the story is far from complete. It should also be noted that the inflammatory response is part of the innate immune response, or to use John Hunter’s words in 1795, “inflammation is a salutary response.” That may be applied in particular to the defensive response to invading micro- ganisms.