Pituitary hormones and related peptides

GENERAL

AND

COMPARATIVE

ENDOCRINOLOGY

50,

333 (1983)

BOOK REVIEW Pituitary

Hormones

and

Related

Peptides,

Vol.

49.

Edited by M. MOTTO, M. ZANISI, AND F. PIVA. Academic Press, London/New York, 1982, xv + 406 pp.; Illustr.; Subject index, $59.50.

The Serono Symposia, of which this was the forty-ninth, have been published at a rate of about 8.5 per year. Most of them have dealt with endocrine topics and have been relatively well focused on bringing together basic and clinical data in specific fields. This volume therefore differs from most of its predecessors in ranging broadly over hypothalamic and hypophysial factors, their secretion, their control, and their separate actions, as well as human pathological consequences related to their dysfunction. However, one benefit of this breadth is that some of the essays comprise neat reviews or summaries, each about 15

pages long, of certain topics which could be helpful to students. Unusual in such symposia is an article by Harold Papkoff on the comparative chemistry of the pars distalis hormones. Several articles dealing with control of ACTH secretion, together, constitute an excellent treatment of this subject. Unfortunately, they were written shortly before the characterization of CRF and so they are already dated. Two articles by Labrie et al. and by Kalra and Kalra deal with regulation of LHRH secretion during the estrous cycle and should be a valuable resource to students seeking the current word in this area. AUBREY

GORBMAN

Department of Zoology University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195

333 001~6480/83 $1.50 ronvrieht

h

19R3 bv Academic

Press. Inc.