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Degradative processes in heart and skeletal muscle
77
Foundatiom of Chemical Analysis
Liposomes in Biological Systems
b y O Budevsky. pp 372. Ellis H o r w o o d , Chichester. 1979. £16.50 ISBN 085312-113-3
Edited by G Gregoriadis and A C Allison. pp 412. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, U K . 1980. £20 ISBN 0-471-27608-1
There are several texts currently available outlining the principles of analytical chemistry, many considering in addition the practical methods used and/or a more comprehensive coverage of instrumentation. In the text under review the reader is taken through the basic principles with the aid of wdi-constrncted diagrams and selective, but not overburdening, lists of data. The author is from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Sofa, Bulgaria and the book is written with the needs of pharmacy students in mind. it is the theoretical text and complementary to a book of laboratory methods of analytical chemistry. The contents of the book cover the principles of the main forms of inorganic analysis, ie titrimetry, precipitation and redox reactions and potentiometry. The book is dominated by a consideration of titrimetry in its major forms - - neutralization (including those in non-aqueous media) and eomplexometric. It is in the chapters devoted to the latter that biochemists - - undergraduate and postgraduate-- will find much useful background reading regarding the principles involved in the estimation of biologically-important metal ions. The relatively shortness of the chapter devoted to potentiometric methods (twenty pages) is to be regretted, particularly as ion-sdective electrodes are becoming increasingly important in analysis in inorganic biochemical work. The theme of the book is the application of the concept of equilibrium to analytical chemistry. This aspiration of the author is fully justified and this appears to have lost little in translation - - a compliment to the series and translation editors. The price of the book will no doubt preclude its appearance on individual students' shelves. It is, however, to be recommended for departmental library purchase as it is a highly readable and comprehensive account of the basic theoretical chemistry of the reactions of inorganic species in solutions. C Tonthill
The idea that good use could be made of the structures adopted by amphiphiles in water to mimic and to model biomembrane structures has a long history. As far back as 1945-47 Teitel Bernard was publishing pictures of smectic mesophases and diagrams of model cell systems and suggesting that the multi and single bilayer structures adopted by many lipid-water systems could be valuable for studying various transport processes such as ion transport. Studies of these lipid-water smectic mesophases became active in the 1960s with studies of Dervichian, Luzzatti and Chapman, who studied the physical micro-structure of these systems aiming to provide insight into the dynamic properties of natural biomembranes and effects due to cholesterol incorporation. Bangham adopted a somewhat different standpoint - - a macro-structural approach D and showed that these smectic mesophase structures could trap ions and also were osmotically sensitive. The word liposome is now often used to describe all these smectic lipid-water systems even when no attempt is made to trap ions or other molecules within these structures. Quite separately, and at first independently, the search for drug carriers or 'pharmacological capsules' increased. Nylon capsules and gelatin capsules were studied and patented. Interest next shifted to the lipid-water model systems, the idea being that if they could trap ions in the aqueous compartments, could they not trap drug molecules? Would these model systems provide a solution to the problem of targeting drugs to specific sites in the body? I suggested in 1969 this basic idea to an industrial pharmaceutical group but the results were never published. The first published work appeared in 1971 by Gregoriadis and Ryman, suggesting such a possibility. This book Liposomes in BiologicalSystems edited by G Gregoriadis and A C Allison describes the many attempts to bring this idea to fruition. Chapters in the book (fourteen in number) cover liposomes as steroid carriers, carriers of polynudeotides, various drugs, antibodies and enzymes, and liposomes as diagnostic tools, by many distinguished authors in the field. There has been great enthusiasm for this new carrier or pharmacological capsule but there are many difficulties in its practical application. These are discussed in the chapters. There is a tempered optimism in ultimate success, although there is also pessimism too. The book is a good introduction to the field and its applications. School of Medicine D Chapman
Dcpanmmt of Chemical Pathology University of Leeds Leeds, UK
Development, Growth and Ageing Edited by N Carter. pp 169. C r o o m Helm, London. 1980. £10.95 or £4.95 (pbk) ISBN 085664-861-2 or 085664-862-0 (pbk) This is a relatively short text which concerns itself only with human development, growth and ageing. It comprises seven chapters on 'Genetic Influences on the Development', 'Changes at Birth and Physiological Maturation in the Newborn Period and During Later Childhood', 'Growth', 'Development of the Nervous System, Language, Movement, and Learning', 'Puberty', and finally 'Biological Mechanisms and Theories of Ageing'. There is no doubt that this book was written primarily for medical students, and as such it provides a useful, concise collection of information about human development. Overall it is weft-ordered and very readable. Unfortunately the small size of this publication has led it to the exclusion of embryology as a topic for consideration although it does include an interesting chapter on the development of language, learning, and other skills. Inevitably, much of the text is written from a clinician's point of view. Unfortunately, one would not put this book very high on the reading list for biochemistry undergraduates since the discussion of biochemical mechanisms of development, growth and ageing is very superficial. Furthermore, the text contains several confusing statements of biochemical fact. Consider, for example, the discussion of error theories of ageing in chapter 7 on 'Biological Mechanisms and Theories of Ageing'. Here the Orgel Hypothesis is described as 'A more probable time for errors to accumulate is during the post-DNA transcription phase of protein synthesis m most likely, according to Leslie Orgel, at the RNA polymerase step. This is a cytoplasmic process (occurring on the ribosomes)...'. Need one say more! In summary, this is an excellent text for medical students concerned with mainly the overall biology of human development. It is not a text for the biochemistry undergraduate. Interesting as the human is, much of our current understanding of *,he biochemical mechanisms of development, growth, and ageing comes from studies of other, more experimentally-amenable organisms, yet these are necessarily not covered in any detail here. B D Haines BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
9(2)
1981
Royal Free Hospital London, UK
Degradative Processes in Heart and Skeletal Muscle Edited by K Wildemhal. pp 461. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam. 1980. DF1 195 ISBN 0 A.A.AS0235-5 This book is volume 3 in a series of research monographs in cell and tissue physiology under the general editorship ofJ T Dingle and J L Gordon. Despite the considerable medical importance of the topic, and the undoubted distinction of the twenty-eight contributors, this remains unfortunately a rather dull publication. Part of this impression results from some unnecessary duplication of material on lymsomes and proteases by several different authors, although the major part of the difficulty stems from the lack of any unifying theory ofdegradative processes in musde tissues. As a result, many of the reviewers had little option but to catalogue the various conflicting research papers in their chosen field, leading to a result which is distinctly heavy going for the general reader, although it will be very useful for those actively engaged in muscle research. There are some surprising omissions. There is very little on ageing, surgical trauma, hormonal regulation, or amino acid breakdown in normal muscle. Denervation and malnutritionare mentioned only briefly. There is good coverage of muscle proteases, iysmomes, and the turnover ofmnscle components in health and disease, and an extended section on the degradative consequences of myocardial ischaemia. It must, however, be admitted that many oftbese topics have recently been reviewed in other publications, and although this book will undoubtedly prove very useful for the specialist researcher, those whose principal interest liell in teaching would be well advised to look elsewhere. John lllingwonh
Foundatiom of Chemical Analysis
Liposomes in Biological Systems
b y O Budevsky. pp 372. Ellis H o r w o o d , Chichester. 1979. £16.50 ISBN 085312-113-3
Edited by G Gregoriadis and A C Allison. pp 412. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, U K . 1980. £20 ISBN 0-471-27608-1
There are several texts currently available outlining the principles of analytical chemistry, many considering in addition the practical methods used and/or a more comprehensive coverage of instrumentation. In the text under review the reader is taken through the basic principles with the aid of wdi-constrncted diagrams and selective, but not overburdening, lists of data. The author is from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Sofa, Bulgaria and the book is written with the needs of pharmacy students in mind. it is the theoretical text and complementary to a book of laboratory methods of analytical chemistry. The contents of the book cover the principles of the main forms of inorganic analysis, ie titrimetry, precipitation and redox reactions and potentiometry. The book is dominated by a consideration of titrimetry in its major forms - - neutralization (including those in non-aqueous media) and eomplexometric. It is in the chapters devoted to the latter that biochemists - - undergraduate and postgraduate-- will find much useful background reading regarding the principles involved in the estimation of biologically-important metal ions. The relatively shortness of the chapter devoted to potentiometric methods (twenty pages) is to be regretted, particularly as ion-sdective electrodes are becoming increasingly important in analysis in inorganic biochemical work. The theme of the book is the application of the concept of equilibrium to analytical chemistry. This aspiration of the author is fully justified and this appears to have lost little in translation - - a compliment to the series and translation editors. The price of the book will no doubt preclude its appearance on individual students' shelves. It is, however, to be recommended for departmental library purchase as it is a highly readable and comprehensive account of the basic theoretical chemistry of the reactions of inorganic species in solutions. C Tonthill
The idea that good use could be made of the structures adopted by amphiphiles in water to mimic and to model biomembrane structures has a long history. As far back as 1945-47 Teitel Bernard was publishing pictures of smectic mesophases and diagrams of model cell systems and suggesting that the multi and single bilayer structures adopted by many lipid-water systems could be valuable for studying various transport processes such as ion transport. Studies of these lipid-water smectic mesophases became active in the 1960s with studies of Dervichian, Luzzatti and Chapman, who studied the physical micro-structure of these systems aiming to provide insight into the dynamic properties of natural biomembranes and effects due to cholesterol incorporation. Bangham adopted a somewhat different standpoint - - a macro-structural approach D and showed that these smectic mesophase structures could trap ions and also were osmotically sensitive. The word liposome is now often used to describe all these smectic lipid-water systems even when no attempt is made to trap ions or other molecules within these structures. Quite separately, and at first independently, the search for drug carriers or 'pharmacological capsules' increased. Nylon capsules and gelatin capsules were studied and patented. Interest next shifted to the lipid-water model systems, the idea being that if they could trap ions in the aqueous compartments, could they not trap drug molecules? Would these model systems provide a solution to the problem of targeting drugs to specific sites in the body? I suggested in 1969 this basic idea to an industrial pharmaceutical group but the results were never published. The first published work appeared in 1971 by Gregoriadis and Ryman, suggesting such a possibility. This book Liposomes in BiologicalSystems edited by G Gregoriadis and A C Allison describes the many attempts to bring this idea to fruition. Chapters in the book (fourteen in number) cover liposomes as steroid carriers, carriers of polynudeotides, various drugs, antibodies and enzymes, and liposomes as diagnostic tools, by many distinguished authors in the field. There has been great enthusiasm for this new carrier or pharmacological capsule but there are many difficulties in its practical application. These are discussed in the chapters. There is a tempered optimism in ultimate success, although there is also pessimism too. The book is a good introduction to the field and its applications. School of Medicine D Chapman
Dcpanmmt of Chemical Pathology University of Leeds Leeds, UK
Development, Growth and Ageing Edited by N Carter. pp 169. C r o o m Helm, London. 1980. £10.95 or £4.95 (pbk) ISBN 085664-861-2 or 085664-862-0 (pbk) This is a relatively short text which concerns itself only with human development, growth and ageing. It comprises seven chapters on 'Genetic Influences on the Development', 'Changes at Birth and Physiological Maturation in the Newborn Period and During Later Childhood', 'Growth', 'Development of the Nervous System, Language, Movement, and Learning', 'Puberty', and finally 'Biological Mechanisms and Theories of Ageing'. There is no doubt that this book was written primarily for medical students, and as such it provides a useful, concise collection of information about human development. Overall it is weft-ordered and very readable. Unfortunately the small size of this publication has led it to the exclusion of embryology as a topic for consideration although it does include an interesting chapter on the development of language, learning, and other skills. Inevitably, much of the text is written from a clinician's point of view. Unfortunately, one would not put this book very high on the reading list for biochemistry undergraduates since the discussion of biochemical mechanisms of development, growth and ageing is very superficial. Furthermore, the text contains several confusing statements of biochemical fact. Consider, for example, the discussion of error theories of ageing in chapter 7 on 'Biological Mechanisms and Theories of Ageing'. Here the Orgel Hypothesis is described as 'A more probable time for errors to accumulate is during the post-DNA transcription phase of protein synthesis m most likely, according to Leslie Orgel, at the RNA polymerase step. This is a cytoplasmic process (occurring on the ribosomes)...'. Need one say more! In summary, this is an excellent text for medical students concerned with mainly the overall biology of human development. It is not a text for the biochemistry undergraduate. Interesting as the human is, much of our current understanding of *,he biochemical mechanisms of development, growth, and ageing comes from studies of other, more experimentally-amenable organisms, yet these are necessarily not covered in any detail here. B D Haines BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
9(2)
1981
Royal Free Hospital London, UK
Degradative Processes in Heart and Skeletal Muscle Edited by K Wildemhal. pp 461. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam. 1980. DF1 195 ISBN 0 A.A.AS0235-5 This book is volume 3 in a series of research monographs in cell and tissue physiology under the general editorship ofJ T Dingle and J L Gordon. Despite the considerable medical importance of the topic, and the undoubted distinction of the twenty-eight contributors, this remains unfortunately a rather dull publication. Part of this impression results from some unnecessary duplication of material on lymsomes and proteases by several different authors, although the major part of the difficulty stems from the lack of any unifying theory ofdegradative processes in musde tissues. As a result, many of the reviewers had little option but to catalogue the various conflicting research papers in their chosen field, leading to a result which is distinctly heavy going for the general reader, although it will be very useful for those actively engaged in muscle research. There are some surprising omissions. There is very little on ageing, surgical trauma, hormonal regulation, or amino acid breakdown in normal muscle. Denervation and malnutritionare mentioned only briefly. There is good coverage of muscle proteases, iysmomes, and the turnover ofmnscle components in health and disease, and an extended section on the degradative consequences of myocardial ischaemia. It must, however, be admitted that many oftbese topics have recently been reviewed in other publications, and although this book will undoubtedly prove very useful for the specialist researcher, those whose principal interest liell in teaching would be well advised to look elsewhere. John lllingwonh