- Email: [email protected]
Cellular Pacemakers, Vol. 2: Function in Normal and Disease States
401
TINS - September 1983
compared to 171 pages devoted to the adrenergic vesicles, and 114 pages to cholinergic vesicles. It seems that the editors wanted to show that these neurohormone-storing granules are biochemically poorly understood, and they have succeeded. In contrast, much information on the adrenergic system and the cholinergic system is given; this makes the book very attractive. Why? Because detailed biochemical, ultrastructural and pharmacological data are described - I would say dissected. Chapter five, on the isolation of noradrenergic vesicles from sympathetic nerves; chapter six, on the ultrastructure of these isolated vesicles (it is, however, a pity to have to wait until chapter six to read the definition of what large vesicles are as opposed to small vesicles); and chapter ten, on the functional role of the noradrenergic vesicles are marvellous pieces of art. I greatly appreciated chapter twelve, on the biochemistry of isolated cholinergic vesicles, and the last pages on chapter thirteen, about the vesicle function and transmitter release; the active debate about release of acetylcholine is fully
described. In addition, physiological and pharmacological properties of isolated noradrenergic vesicles are described in a pertinent, simple way, so that I will now be able to explain to students noradrenergic pools, effects of sympathomimetic amines, etc . . . . (p. 209, I was not surprised to read that aged New York Cheddar cheese might be a health-hazard because of its high tyramine content. However, I was surprised to learn that this is also the case for Camembert!). The vesicle has many functions to accomplish: storing neurotransmitter molecules and releasing them, regulating synaptic plasma membrane, etc . . . . From its site of synthesis, in the cell body, the vesicle must move down the axon; I was surprised that in such a book there is no word about the transport of the vesicle, which implies the study of relationship of the limiting vesicle membrane with the cellular environment and other cell constituents. To whom is this book likely to be most useful?: first, to neurobiologists who are fully involved in the field of neurotransmit-
ter vesicles and, more generally, in the field of storage granules. In addition, this book will also be of interest to neurochemists and neurobiologists who would like to have a complete knowledge of neurotransmission. This book will both answer many of their questions and also question 'wellestablished' truths. I would also like to emphasize the interest this book will have for students. I feel free to relate life in my own laboratory: on several occasions when I left this book on my desk in the evening, I could not find it the following morning. I was obliged to ask which of the students had borrowed it. Then there was much discussion, first to persuade the student to give me back the book, and then to answer the series of questions which were raised by the book. Briefly, this is an essential book to anyone working on or teaching about the nervous system.
C e l l u l a r P a c e m a k e r s , Vol. 2: F u n c t i o n in N o r m a l and D i s e a s e States
the constituent chapters each having an appended reference list. Part I (Chapters 1-6) considers the role of pacemaker discharges in sensation, respiration and simple motor behavior, and in more complex phenomena such as learning and mammalian sleep and wakefulness cycles (although exciting new results on the involvement of circadian oscillators were disappointingly not covered in this last topic). I found Hanson's chapter on pacemaker control of rhythmic flashing of fire-flies particularly rewarding. It considers the formal similarities of the pacemaker underlying this ultradian behavorial rhythm (persisting free-run, entrainability, phase shiflability) to those underlying circadian rhythms. The four chapters comprising Part II are devoted to pacemakers of circadian rhythms (those having a period approximating 24 hours under conditions held constant with respect to illumination, temperature and other major environmental Zeitgeber). The first two contributions are more general in nature (presumably for the uninitiated), with Halberg's concluding that ' . . . rather than fixating on clock structures in search for rome ultimate single mechanism, one (should note) how timing in organisms results from a highly co-operative interaction of neural, hormonal and cellular oscillating webs or subsystems' (pp. 170--171). In view of this cautionary note, it is both comforting and satisfying to find that the pineal gland in birds (Chapter 9) and the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) (Chapter 10) are prime candidates
for anatomically distinct, master clock pacemakers. Binkley nicely tabulates a list of structures (pineal, SCN, adrenals, pituitaries, eyes) that have been repeatedly implicated as vertebrate pacemakers and attempts to organize them into hierarchies of driving (master) and driven (slave) entities, wisely noting that no one scheme fits all cases. Lastly, Part Ill groups five contributions dealing with pacemaker dysfunction in several disease states, including cardiac malfunction, tremor and epilepsy, and even the ageing process. Although admittedly speculative, the chapters treating these last two topics plausibly suggest that pacemaker insufficiency may play a causal role in the disease process - a longcherished notion (i.e. the breakdown of temporal organization) of many chronobiologists, especially as they apply for biomedical research grants. In sum, I feel that this book has fulfilled one of its principal aims to increase the general awareness of the role of endogenous electrical activity in animal behavior and human disease. For me, another important contribution is the cross-fertilization between the neurobiologist and the classical chronobiologist: the analogy between ultradian and circadian oscillators, with regard to many formal properties and perhaps their underlying mechanisms, is remarkable. LELANDN. EDMUNDS
edited by D a v i d O. Carpenter, J o h n Wiley a n d Sons, 1982. £ 5 3 . 1 5 (xii + 3 71 pages) I S B N 0 471 0 9 6 0 8 3
Persisting, autonomous, rhythmic activity is ubiquitous throughout the animal and plant kingdoms, with periods ranging from milliseconds to days and months, and even years. There is extensive evidence that endogenous, self-sustaining oscillators underlie many of these rhythmicities; the basic questions in the field of chronobiology have concerned the nature of these formally implicated pacemakers or 'clocks', and whether they are anatomically localizable. It is to this latter problem in particular that this edited collection of 15 papers is addressed. The first volume of Cellular P a c e m a k ers dealt primarily with the biophysical ionic and metabolic mechanisms underlying pacemaker activities and the variety of cell types in which primary rhythms have been demonstrated and, as such, it was a natural updating of earlier treatments. An example is Cellular Oscillators (J. Exp. Biol., Vol. 81 ), edited by M. J. Berridge, P. E. Rapp and J. E. Treheme, Cambridge University Press, 1979. This second, companion volume stresses rather the functional significance of biological rhythmicities and the human disease states with which they are associated (and, provocatively, may even cause). The book is divided into three parts, with
DOMINIQUEAUNIS Maftre de Recherche - INSERM, Unitd U-44 de I'INSERM, 'Neurochimie Normale et Pathologique', F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex. France.
Professor, Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, N Y 11794, USA.
TINS - September 1983
compared to 171 pages devoted to the adrenergic vesicles, and 114 pages to cholinergic vesicles. It seems that the editors wanted to show that these neurohormone-storing granules are biochemically poorly understood, and they have succeeded. In contrast, much information on the adrenergic system and the cholinergic system is given; this makes the book very attractive. Why? Because detailed biochemical, ultrastructural and pharmacological data are described - I would say dissected. Chapter five, on the isolation of noradrenergic vesicles from sympathetic nerves; chapter six, on the ultrastructure of these isolated vesicles (it is, however, a pity to have to wait until chapter six to read the definition of what large vesicles are as opposed to small vesicles); and chapter ten, on the functional role of the noradrenergic vesicles are marvellous pieces of art. I greatly appreciated chapter twelve, on the biochemistry of isolated cholinergic vesicles, and the last pages on chapter thirteen, about the vesicle function and transmitter release; the active debate about release of acetylcholine is fully
described. In addition, physiological and pharmacological properties of isolated noradrenergic vesicles are described in a pertinent, simple way, so that I will now be able to explain to students noradrenergic pools, effects of sympathomimetic amines, etc . . . . (p. 209, I was not surprised to read that aged New York Cheddar cheese might be a health-hazard because of its high tyramine content. However, I was surprised to learn that this is also the case for Camembert!). The vesicle has many functions to accomplish: storing neurotransmitter molecules and releasing them, regulating synaptic plasma membrane, etc . . . . From its site of synthesis, in the cell body, the vesicle must move down the axon; I was surprised that in such a book there is no word about the transport of the vesicle, which implies the study of relationship of the limiting vesicle membrane with the cellular environment and other cell constituents. To whom is this book likely to be most useful?: first, to neurobiologists who are fully involved in the field of neurotransmit-
ter vesicles and, more generally, in the field of storage granules. In addition, this book will also be of interest to neurochemists and neurobiologists who would like to have a complete knowledge of neurotransmission. This book will both answer many of their questions and also question 'wellestablished' truths. I would also like to emphasize the interest this book will have for students. I feel free to relate life in my own laboratory: on several occasions when I left this book on my desk in the evening, I could not find it the following morning. I was obliged to ask which of the students had borrowed it. Then there was much discussion, first to persuade the student to give me back the book, and then to answer the series of questions which were raised by the book. Briefly, this is an essential book to anyone working on or teaching about the nervous system.
C e l l u l a r P a c e m a k e r s , Vol. 2: F u n c t i o n in N o r m a l and D i s e a s e States
the constituent chapters each having an appended reference list. Part I (Chapters 1-6) considers the role of pacemaker discharges in sensation, respiration and simple motor behavior, and in more complex phenomena such as learning and mammalian sleep and wakefulness cycles (although exciting new results on the involvement of circadian oscillators were disappointingly not covered in this last topic). I found Hanson's chapter on pacemaker control of rhythmic flashing of fire-flies particularly rewarding. It considers the formal similarities of the pacemaker underlying this ultradian behavorial rhythm (persisting free-run, entrainability, phase shiflability) to those underlying circadian rhythms. The four chapters comprising Part II are devoted to pacemakers of circadian rhythms (those having a period approximating 24 hours under conditions held constant with respect to illumination, temperature and other major environmental Zeitgeber). The first two contributions are more general in nature (presumably for the uninitiated), with Halberg's concluding that ' . . . rather than fixating on clock structures in search for rome ultimate single mechanism, one (should note) how timing in organisms results from a highly co-operative interaction of neural, hormonal and cellular oscillating webs or subsystems' (pp. 170--171). In view of this cautionary note, it is both comforting and satisfying to find that the pineal gland in birds (Chapter 9) and the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) (Chapter 10) are prime candidates
for anatomically distinct, master clock pacemakers. Binkley nicely tabulates a list of structures (pineal, SCN, adrenals, pituitaries, eyes) that have been repeatedly implicated as vertebrate pacemakers and attempts to organize them into hierarchies of driving (master) and driven (slave) entities, wisely noting that no one scheme fits all cases. Lastly, Part Ill groups five contributions dealing with pacemaker dysfunction in several disease states, including cardiac malfunction, tremor and epilepsy, and even the ageing process. Although admittedly speculative, the chapters treating these last two topics plausibly suggest that pacemaker insufficiency may play a causal role in the disease process - a longcherished notion (i.e. the breakdown of temporal organization) of many chronobiologists, especially as they apply for biomedical research grants. In sum, I feel that this book has fulfilled one of its principal aims to increase the general awareness of the role of endogenous electrical activity in animal behavior and human disease. For me, another important contribution is the cross-fertilization between the neurobiologist and the classical chronobiologist: the analogy between ultradian and circadian oscillators, with regard to many formal properties and perhaps their underlying mechanisms, is remarkable. LELANDN. EDMUNDS
edited by D a v i d O. Carpenter, J o h n Wiley a n d Sons, 1982. £ 5 3 . 1 5 (xii + 3 71 pages) I S B N 0 471 0 9 6 0 8 3
Persisting, autonomous, rhythmic activity is ubiquitous throughout the animal and plant kingdoms, with periods ranging from milliseconds to days and months, and even years. There is extensive evidence that endogenous, self-sustaining oscillators underlie many of these rhythmicities; the basic questions in the field of chronobiology have concerned the nature of these formally implicated pacemakers or 'clocks', and whether they are anatomically localizable. It is to this latter problem in particular that this edited collection of 15 papers is addressed. The first volume of Cellular P a c e m a k ers dealt primarily with the biophysical ionic and metabolic mechanisms underlying pacemaker activities and the variety of cell types in which primary rhythms have been demonstrated and, as such, it was a natural updating of earlier treatments. An example is Cellular Oscillators (J. Exp. Biol., Vol. 81 ), edited by M. J. Berridge, P. E. Rapp and J. E. Treheme, Cambridge University Press, 1979. This second, companion volume stresses rather the functional significance of biological rhythmicities and the human disease states with which they are associated (and, provocatively, may even cause). The book is divided into three parts, with
DOMINIQUEAUNIS Maftre de Recherche - INSERM, Unitd U-44 de I'INSERM, 'Neurochimie Normale et Pathologique', F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex. France.
Professor, Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, N Y 11794, USA.