356 Reviews of recent publications--Fd Chem. Toxic. Vol. 24, No.4

fortunately the size of the present book makes a comprehensive review of such an enormous topic an impossible task. Over the past 10 years numerous books, four or five times the length of the present one, have dealt with specific aspects of intestinal flora without giving the impression of verbosity.

In this book the authors attempt to describe the microbiology of the alimentary tracts of man and omnivorous animals, herbivores, ruminants, birds and, briefly, insects. The chapters cover the structure and function of the intestinal tracts of these animals, the methodology used for microbiological analyses of gut contents, the bacterial flora of various regions of the gut, the role of the flora in diarrhoea and malabsorption, and beneficial and detrimental effects of the flora on the host.

In their preface the authors state that "Information on and understanding of the microbiology of the alimentary tract has increased rapidly in the last 20 years and shows little signs of diminishing". This is not exactly borne out by the references at the end of each chapter. These are not only few in number, but are also positively geriatric--many date from the mid-sixties to mid-seventies, and they certainly do not give the impression of a topical and currently exciting subject.

This lack of current references often reflects the text. For example, there is a table of viable counts of gut organisms in different animal species, including man, which is derived from a paper published in 1965. This data was collected before the development of the sophisticated anaerobic techniques needed to culture the oxygen-sensitive organisms which domi- nate the gut, and so the counts of organisms shown are almost certainly gross underestimates of the actual numbers present. No statement to this effect is made, despite the fact that the authors had discussed the need for strict anaerobic techniques in the pre- vious chapter.

In summary then, although the book is a source of much information on the gut microflora, it suffers from trying to encompass so huge a subject in such a slim volume.

The Pharmacology of Inflammation. Handbook of Inflammation. Volume 5. Edited by I. L. Bonta, M. A. Bray & M. J. Parnham. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1985. pp. xxii+465. Dfl. 240.00. ISBN 0-444-90312-7.

This book is the latest volume of a series providing detailed and informative reports on the multiple components that go into the inflammatory process. Parallel with the rapid growth in the field of immu- nology there has been intensive research into the role of various cell products in inflammation and greater understanding of the biochemistry of connective tissue.

This volume is particularly interesting because it deals both with the processes of inflammation and with the way in which anti-inflammatory therapy affects the individual components of the inflam- matory response. Several chapters deal with the vascular responses and their suppression. These in- elude a discussion of the locally generated mediators such as histamine and the prostenoids and their effect

on venous endothelium, the inhibition of vasodila- ration by the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIA) and the development of drugs that inhibit permeability-increasing mediators, as well as the important role of the complement system in op- sonization, recruitment of phagocytic cells, release of inflammatory mediators and the triggering of endo- thelial prostacyciin biosynthesis. Other chapters deal with the recruitment and activation of phagocytic cells such as neutrophils and macrophages and mod- ulation of their function by drugs. Phagocyte activa- tion is a crucial event in the pathophysiology of inflammation and it is particularly interesting that inhibition by low concentrations of glucocortico- steroids of the production of a number of proteins released by inflammatory macrophages is restricted to a particular set of responses. The search is on, therefore, for compounds specifically able to pre- vent activation and thus modulate macrophage responses.

Other topics include the effect of hormones and neural activity on inflammation, and the cellular and subcellular events that occur during the degeneration of cartilage and other tissues in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. An interleukin-1 factor has recently been shown to stimulate the proliferation of human synovial and osteoblast-like cells and to be a potent stimulator of bone resorption in vitro.

Other sections of the book deal with new ap- proaches to the drug treatment of inflammation, and the monitoring of anti-inflammatory drug therapy. Attention is drawn to the fact that drugs that prevent calcium entry into cells and those that block the effects of intracellular calcium would be expected to have anti-inflammatory potential. This raises the question of whether it is possible to develop com- pounds that show such an action selectively on cells that participate in inflammatory events--as, for example, NSAIAs inhibit the binding of calcium to cell membranes in polymorphonuciear leucocytes (PMN). Compounds that would block the oxidative burst of PMN or macrophages, or inhibit late events by blocking 5-1ipoxygenases (for the formation of leukotrienes) or acetyltransferase (for formation of platelet-activating factor) appear as attractive as they are difficult to develop. Inflammatory processes are the result of the synergistic activity of a cohort of mediators and there is no certainty that inhibition at a very discrete level will exert the pharmacological effects expected from abrogation of a single pathway and/or the activity of a mediator. Nevertheless, more- selective inhibitors may unravel the role of different enzymes, lipid mediators, cell populations and immu- nological mechanisms in inflammation, and may therefore suggest ways to control specific mechanisms in the disease process.

In conclusion, this book provides both a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the inflammatory process, and a glimpse of the possible future approaches for successful anti-inflammatory therapy.

Myeotoxins. Formation, Analysis and Significance. Edited by J. E. Smith & M. O. Moss. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1985. pp. 148. £14.95. ISBN 0-471-90671-9.