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Organ culture
BOOK REVIEWS
127
Organ Culture. Edited by J. A. Thomas. Academic Press, New York, 1970. pp. xiii q- 512. $29.50. This book is the first English translation of a classic work on organ culture--"Cultures Organotypiques" by Etienne Wolff and his colleagues--published in France in 1964. The chapters comprising this work were originally presented as a series of lectures forming part of a course in cell biology. The authors have, however, taken this opportunity to update the work to 1969 by including after each chapter an addendum outlining some of the more important work that has been carried out since the original material was assembled. The book has been expertly translated and its readability is further enhanced by the good layout of the chapters and the abundance of photographs and diagrams. A summary at the end of each chapter provides useful clarification of the main points made. Each chapter and addendum ends with a comprehensive bibliography. The first chapter, by Professor Wolff himself, is in the form of a general introduction to the principles of organ culture and is followed by nine further contributions showing how these principles have been applied in various areas of research. The main point to emerge from the first three of these is that, generally speaking, embryonic tissues in culture follow the same pattern of differentiation as they would in vivo. Strangely enough, such differentiation takes place quite well in synthetic media. The addition of sex hormones to culture media can alter the development of the gonads. For example, in some amphibia the addition of male sex hormones to cultures of female embryonic gonadal tissue produces a male type of gland. The rest of the book considers the action of hormones and inhibitors on organogenesis in vitro, the factors governing the re-association of dissociated cells and the processes of induction of growth and differentiation. A chapter devoted to organ culture in the invertebrates, a branch of the technique still in its infancy, is one of the few parts of the book where the culture of adult organs is considered. The final contribution, devoted to organ chimeras and the organ culture of malignant tumours, will be of particular interest to workers in cancer research. On the whole this is a very readable book and should prove of value to many biologists, not only those working in the fields of developmental biology and tissue culture. Control Mechanism of Growth and Differentiation. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology. No. XXV. Edited by D. D. Davies and M. Balls. Cambridge University Press, 1971. pp. vii -/- 498. £8. This volume is a collection of the papers presented to the 25th Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology, jointly organized by the Society and the British Society for Developmental Biology. The 26 papers range over subject matter as varied as wall-pattern formation in angiosperm microsporogenesis and the form of the mouse blastocyst. Such diversity reflects the complex and extensive subject matter pertinent to the work of the developmental biologist. Early contributions deal with the relatively simple systems of development in the prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes. The first communication reviews the response of Escherichia coli and other micro-organisms to starvation, a reaction that is basically concerned with the synthesis of new enzymes to metabolize alternative nutrients. The occurrence of longlived messenger RNA is also a common feature of these primitive organisms. FOOD 11/1--I
127
Organ Culture. Edited by J. A. Thomas. Academic Press, New York, 1970. pp. xiii q- 512. $29.50. This book is the first English translation of a classic work on organ culture--"Cultures Organotypiques" by Etienne Wolff and his colleagues--published in France in 1964. The chapters comprising this work were originally presented as a series of lectures forming part of a course in cell biology. The authors have, however, taken this opportunity to update the work to 1969 by including after each chapter an addendum outlining some of the more important work that has been carried out since the original material was assembled. The book has been expertly translated and its readability is further enhanced by the good layout of the chapters and the abundance of photographs and diagrams. A summary at the end of each chapter provides useful clarification of the main points made. Each chapter and addendum ends with a comprehensive bibliography. The first chapter, by Professor Wolff himself, is in the form of a general introduction to the principles of organ culture and is followed by nine further contributions showing how these principles have been applied in various areas of research. The main point to emerge from the first three of these is that, generally speaking, embryonic tissues in culture follow the same pattern of differentiation as they would in vivo. Strangely enough, such differentiation takes place quite well in synthetic media. The addition of sex hormones to culture media can alter the development of the gonads. For example, in some amphibia the addition of male sex hormones to cultures of female embryonic gonadal tissue produces a male type of gland. The rest of the book considers the action of hormones and inhibitors on organogenesis in vitro, the factors governing the re-association of dissociated cells and the processes of induction of growth and differentiation. A chapter devoted to organ culture in the invertebrates, a branch of the technique still in its infancy, is one of the few parts of the book where the culture of adult organs is considered. The final contribution, devoted to organ chimeras and the organ culture of malignant tumours, will be of particular interest to workers in cancer research. On the whole this is a very readable book and should prove of value to many biologists, not only those working in the fields of developmental biology and tissue culture. Control Mechanism of Growth and Differentiation. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology. No. XXV. Edited by D. D. Davies and M. Balls. Cambridge University Press, 1971. pp. vii -/- 498. £8. This volume is a collection of the papers presented to the 25th Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology, jointly organized by the Society and the British Society for Developmental Biology. The 26 papers range over subject matter as varied as wall-pattern formation in angiosperm microsporogenesis and the form of the mouse blastocyst. Such diversity reflects the complex and extensive subject matter pertinent to the work of the developmental biologist. Early contributions deal with the relatively simple systems of development in the prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes. The first communication reviews the response of Escherichia coli and other micro-organisms to starvation, a reaction that is basically concerned with the synthesis of new enzymes to metabolize alternative nutrients. The occurrence of longlived messenger RNA is also a common feature of these primitive organisms. FOOD 11/1--I