354 Book Reviews

--Risk-benefit assessment. - - H o r m o n a l regimens.

This book would be useful for people working in the fields of endocrinology, physiology, pathophysiology and cardiovascular disease, as well as for advanced students.

Methods in E n z y m o l o g y Vol. 217: Recombinant DNA, Part H. Edited by Ray Wu. Published 1993 by Academic Press, San Diego, 754 pp. ISBN: 0-12-182118-8 . Price: US$90.00.

Methods in E n z y m o l o g y . Vol. 218: R e c o m b i n a n t DNA, P a r t I. Edited by Ray Wu. Published 1993 by Academic Press, San Diego. 838 pp. ISBN: 0-12-182119-6 . Price: US$95.00.

Recombinant DNA methods are powerful, revolutionary techniques for at least two reasons. First, they allow the isolation of single genes in large amounts from a pool of thousands or millions of genes. Second, the isolated genes from any source or their regulatory regions can be modified at will and reintroduced into a wide variety of cells by transformation. The cells expressing the introduced gene can be measured at the RNA level or protein level. These advantages allow us to solve complex biological problems, including medical and genetic problems and to gain deeper understandings at the molecular level. In addition, new recombinant D N A methods are essential tools in the production of novel or better products in the areas of health, agriculture and industry. During the past few years many new or improved recombinant DNA methods have appeared and a number of them are included in these two volumes. The contents are as follows:

Vol. 217 - -Vectors for expressing cloned genes. - -Mutagenesis and gene disruption. - -Screening libraries, identifying and mapping genes. - -Me thods for transforming animal and plant cells.

Vol. 218 - -Methods for sequencing DNA. - -Polymerase chain reaction for amplifying and manipulating DNA. - -Me thods for detecting DNA-protein interaction. - - O t h e r methods.

This book would be useful for people working in the fields of enzymology, biochemistry, molecular biology and biology, as well as for advanced students.

Basic Medical Endocrinology. (2nd edition). Edited by H. M. Goodman. Raven Press Series in Physiology-- Series Editor: W. F. Ganong. Published 1994 by Raven Press, New York. 348 pp. ISBN: 0-7817-0105-8 .

In the five years since the first edition the information explosion in endocrinology has continued unabated and may even have accelerated. Application of the powerful tools of molecular biology has made it possible to ask questions about hormone production and action that were only dreamed of a decade earlier. The receptor molecules that initiate responses to virtually all of the hormones have been characterized and significant progress has been made in unravelling the events that lead to the final cellular expression of hormonal stimulation. As more details of intracellular signaling emerge., the complexities of parallel and intersecting pathways of transduction have become more evident. We are beginning to understand how cells regulate the expression of genes and how hormones intervene in regulatory processes to adjust the expression of individual genes. Great strides have been made in understanding how individual cells talk to each other through locally released factors to coordinate growth, differentiation, secretion, and other responses within a tissue. In these regards endocrinology and immunology share common themes and have contributed to each other's advancement.

This revised text attempts to incorporate many of the exciting advances in our understanding of cellular and molecular processes into the discourse on integrated whole body function.

The chapters in this volume are divided into three main sections:

--Basics - - Introduct ion. - -Pi tui tary gland. - -Thy r o id gland.

Book Reviews 355

--Adrenal glands. --Islets of Langerhans.

--Integration of hormone functions --Principles of hormonal integration. --Regulation of sodium and water balance. - -Hormonal regulation of calcium metabolism. - -Hormonal regulation of fuel metabolism.

--Reproduction, growth and development - -Hormonal control of growth. - -Hormonal control of reproduction in the male. - -Hormonal control of reproduction in the female.

• Menstrual cycle. • Pregnancy and lactation.

This book would be useful for people working in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, reproduction, molecular biology and endocrinology, as well as for clinicians and for advanced students.

Growth Factors in Perinatal Development . Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Mead Johnson Nutrition Symposia, Vol. 12. Edited by R. C. Tsang, J. A. Lemons and W. F. Balistreri. Published 1993 by Raven Press, New York. 144 pp. ISBN: 0-781'7-8103-1 (hardback).

Findings of the most recent research on growth factors, which are contained in this volume, were presented at the Twelfth Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb/Mead Johnson Nutrition Symposium, entitled: "Growth Factors in Perinatal Development". Although the focus of this meeting was on growth in the perinatal period, we need not assume that growth is limited to early life. In fact, it is entirely appropriate to expand our concepts of growth to include the adult and the elderly. In these mature and later years, the processes of growth are focused more on renewal of body mass rather than on net accumulation. Growth of individual tissues occurs for the purposes of body maintenance, that is, tissue turnover and repair. In that way aging can be seen as the gradual failure of growth factors to operate in the same way as in youth. Thus, the study of growth factors has applications beyond the perinatal period and across the life span. What we learn in the perinatal period will help us to understand better how to improve: the quality of our lives in later years.

The chapters included are as follows:

- -Growth factors and development: insights and changing approaches since the advent of molecular biology. --Transforming growda factor-alpha: its expression, regulation and role in transformation. --Skeletal formation and the bone morphogenetic proteins. --After growth hormone binds: toward understanding the molecular basis of growth hormone action. --Development of a rnodel system to investigate autocrine modalities of growth factor actions. --Nuclear oncoproteins: target of signal transduction. --Recombinant hematopoietic growth factors in neonataology.

This book would be useful for people working in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, reproduction, molecular biology and endocrinology, as well as for clinicians and for advanced students.

Steroid Analysis. Edited by H. L. J. Makin, D. B. Gower and D. N. Kirk. Published 1995 by Blackie Academic & Professional, Glasgow. 736 pp. ISBN: 0-7514-0128-5. Price: £145.00 (hardback).

This landmark volume, written by a team of distinguished authors, provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on the analysis of steroids, mainly in biological fluids. Chapters on the extraction, separation and quantification of steroids are followed by others describing the analysis of specific steroid groups, with the emphasis on problems arising from the low levels of analytes in complex matrices. This book is a review of modem methods for the analysis of steroids, recognizing the increased interest in many steroids over the last decade, which arose from their use as drugs to enhance performance of athletes and the advent of vitamin D and its derivatives as

anti-cancer agents.

The contents are as fallows:

- - T h e structure and nomenclature of steroids. --Spectroscopic methods of steroid analysis. --General methods of steroid analysis.