Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Buchbesprechung

Buchbesprechung Prost amandins, Leukotrienes and Other Eicosanoids From Biogenesis Co Clinical Application. Edited by Friedrich Marks and Gerhard Fürsten berger. 400 S., gebunden. 229 152. Wiley-VCH 1999. ISBN 3-52729360-4. This book is devoted to an area which has tremendously expanded during the past two decades and on which numerous excellent monographs, collective volumes and reviews have appeared before. Therefore, the courage of the publishers, editors and contributors to edit another book on this topic deserves appreciation. Since any attempt to present a complete compendium of the biochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology of prostaglandins, leukotrienes and related lipid mediators in one volume from the knowledge of eicosanoid research, which has accumulated up till now, is bound to fail, the authors selected the most fundamental issues that are of interest especially for the readers who are not well specialised in the eicosanoid field. With few exceptions, this approach appears to be successful. The editor wrote an introductory chapter, in which he gave a short comprehensive survey on the chemistry, metabolism and most relevant biological actions of the various compound classes of eicosanoids and their receptors occurring in mammalian cells, invertebrates, algae and higher plants. For details, the reader is recommended to the more specified reviews and original papers counting approximately to 200 references. However, the author forgot some aspects of fungal arachidonic acid metabolism, such as 3-HETE and related compounds, not even literature references on that. Despite this obvious slip, the chapter is written in a didactically fair style. The next five chapters deal with the major groups of enzymes involved in the eicosanoid metabolism, i.e. phospholipases, cyclooxygenases, prostaglandin and thromboxane synthases, lipoxygenases, and cytochrome P-450-type monooxygenases. The last three chapters out of these five are written at an adequate scientific level. They are restricted to more general aspects including recent developments in this field and have added extensive lists of references including foregoing reviews to enable the reader to be introduced to the special literature. Unfortunately, the chapter on phospholipases did not follow the style of above-mentioned chapters. It is a fussy compilation of the properties of the respective enzymes without the necessary emphasis on the complex interplay between the different enzymes of the phospholipid breakdown and their interaction with other enzymes of the arachidonic acid metabolism. Particularly, the pity is in view of the fact that the phospholipase research has undergone an incessant progress during the last decade as demonstrated recently by the contributions at the International Conference on Phospholipase A2 held in May 1999 in Berlin. Five other chapters are related to selected functional aspects of eicosanoids under normal and pathological conditions. These are (i) the renal functions and their relation to hypertension, (ii) the role in reproductive tissues and their disorders, (iii) the role in the regulation of airway functions and their relationship to inflammation, allergy and asthma, (iv) the role in the cardiovascular system and its dysfunctions, and (v) the role in cancer development and metastasis. The selection of topics corresponds to the clinical fields in which synthetic eicosanoids or drugs counteracting with their metabolism or actions are applied. Therefore, this book is helpful to obtain an impression on the multifaceted importance of eicosanoids in human medicine. The book ends up with a survey on selected modern synthetic eicosanoids and their clinical applications. Owing to its structure and treatment, this book may serve as an adjunct to pertinent textbooks of biochemistry, in which the biochemistry and pharmacology of eicosanoids is treated only marginally. Thus, this book can be particularly recommended to graduate and postgraduate students of biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmacy or medicine as well as to lecturers teaching biochemistry or corresponding clinical subjects. It is certainly less suitable for the advanced researcher in the eicosanoid field, since better and more comprehensive books and series are available for such readers. Due to the predominant character of this book as a supplement to textbooks, the parsimonious use of didactic schemes in most of the chapters (except for those written by the editors) is a severe shortcoming. Santosh Nigam M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.h.c. Eicosanoid Research Division, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Centre Benjamin Franklin, Free University Berlin J Lab Med 2000; 24 (4): 180 © 2000 Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Laboratoriums Medizin / Journal of Laboratory Medicine de Gruyter

Buchbesprechung

Download PDF
1 page

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/buchbesprechung-B0QG0OF0vD

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0342-3026
eISSN
1439-0477
DOI
10.1515/labm.2000.24.4.180
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Prost amandins, Leukotrienes and Other Eicosanoids From Biogenesis Co Clinical Application. Edited by Friedrich Marks and Gerhard Fürsten berger. 400 S., gebunden. 229 152. Wiley-VCH 1999. ISBN 3-52729360-4. This book is devoted to an area which has tremendously expanded during the past two decades and on which numerous excellent monographs, collective volumes and reviews have appeared before. Therefore, the courage of the publishers, editors and contributors to edit another book on this topic deserves appreciation. Since any attempt to present a complete compendium of the biochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology of prostaglandins, leukotrienes and related lipid mediators in one volume from the knowledge of eicosanoid research, which has accumulated up till now, is bound to fail, the authors selected the most fundamental issues that are of interest especially for the readers who are not well specialised in the eicosanoid field. With few exceptions, this approach appears to be successful. The editor wrote an introductory chapter, in which he gave a short comprehensive survey on the chemistry, metabolism and most relevant biological actions of the various compound classes of eicosanoids and their receptors occurring in mammalian cells, invertebrates, algae and higher plants. For details, the reader is recommended to the more specified reviews and original papers counting approximately to 200 references. However, the author forgot some aspects of fungal arachidonic acid metabolism, such as 3-HETE and related compounds, not even literature references on that. Despite this obvious slip, the chapter is written in a didactically fair style. The next five chapters deal with the major groups of enzymes involved in the eicosanoid metabolism, i.e. phospholipases, cyclooxygenases, prostaglandin and thromboxane synthases, lipoxygenases, and cytochrome P-450-type monooxygenases. The last three chapters out of these five are written at an adequate scientific level. They are restricted to more general aspects including recent developments in this field and have added extensive lists of references including foregoing reviews to enable the reader to be introduced to the special literature. Unfortunately, the chapter on phospholipases did not follow the style of above-mentioned chapters. It is a fussy compilation of the properties of the respective enzymes without the necessary emphasis on the complex interplay between the different enzymes of the phospholipid breakdown and their interaction with other enzymes of the arachidonic acid metabolism. Particularly, the pity is in view of the fact that the phospholipase research has undergone an incessant progress during the last decade as demonstrated recently by the contributions at the International Conference on Phospholipase A2 held in May 1999 in Berlin. Five other chapters are related to selected functional aspects of eicosanoids under normal and pathological conditions. These are (i) the renal functions and their relation to hypertension, (ii) the role in reproductive tissues and their disorders, (iii) the role in the regulation of airway functions and their relationship to inflammation, allergy and asthma, (iv) the role in the cardiovascular system and its dysfunctions, and (v) the role in cancer development and metastasis. The selection of topics corresponds to the clinical fields in which synthetic eicosanoids or drugs counteracting with their metabolism or actions are applied. Therefore, this book is helpful to obtain an impression on the multifaceted importance of eicosanoids in human medicine. The book ends up with a survey on selected modern synthetic eicosanoids and their clinical applications. Owing to its structure and treatment, this book may serve as an adjunct to pertinent textbooks of biochemistry, in which the biochemistry and pharmacology of eicosanoids is treated only marginally. Thus, this book can be particularly recommended to graduate and postgraduate students of biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmacy or medicine as well as to lecturers teaching biochemistry or corresponding clinical subjects. It is certainly less suitable for the advanced researcher in the eicosanoid field, since better and more comprehensive books and series are available for such readers. Due to the predominant character of this book as a supplement to textbooks, the parsimonious use of didactic schemes in most of the chapters (except for those written by the editors) is a severe shortcoming. Santosh Nigam M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.h.c. Eicosanoid Research Division, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Centre Benjamin Franklin, Free University Berlin J Lab Med 2000; 24 (4): 180 © 2000 Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin

Journal

Laboratoriums Medizin / Journal of Laboratory Medicine – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 2000

There are no references for this article.