A veritable mountain of literature has been published showing the causal relationship of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species in human disease conditions, and there has been an explosion in the understanding of oxidative stress, the protective role of antioxidants and molecular events involved in the regulation of transcription, editing, and translation of key events leading to disease processes. Strategies need to be developed for prevention of diseases by allowing scientists and clinicians to obtain information on new and emerging advances. The molecular mechanisms involved in several diseases...

A variety of metabolic processes are known to be intimately involved in the maintenance of cellular structure and function. It has also become clear that metabolic events involved in the synthesis and hydrolysis of ATP as well as for the synthesis of proteins and phospholipids are essential for cellular health. The regulation of cell function is generally achieved through participation of a wide variety of hormones and different signal transduction mechanisms for the activation/deactivation of some specific metabolic processes. In this regard cyclic AMP and calcium seem to play a crucial...

The cellular functions of lipid-transport proteins cannot can be obtained, as well as structural information re- garding the local environment of the spectroscopic be fully realized without a comprehensive knowledge of probe. However, changes in protein fluorescence upon their binding properties. In particular, it is important to identify physiologically important ligands and establish ligand binding are sometimes too small to quantitate. their binding affinities, stoichiometries and specificities. This is particularly true for L-FABP, which has no tryp- Since many lipid-binding proteins...

The special issue of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry focuses on Control of Gene Expression by Catecholamines and the Renin-Angiotensin System' in health and disease. In recent years, great progress has been made in the understanding of catecholamine and angiotensin II modulated gene expression. There is also increasing evidence that catecholamine and angiotensin II induced cellular injury not solely arises from classical pathways but also from a perturbed gene expression.
Taking into account that catecholamines and angiotensin II are vital for a balanced gene expression of...

This volume continues the discussion of the problems of in vivo and in vitro. The recently solved X-ray structure of the mitochondrial creatine kinase and its molecular biology cellular bioenergetics - the tradition we started in 1994 by publication of the focused issue of Molecular and Cellular are analyzed with respect to its molecular physiology and Biochemistry, volume 133/134 and a book 'Cellular Bio functional coupling to the adenine nucleotide translocase, as energetics: role of coupled creatine kinases' edited by V. Saks well as its participation, together with the adenylate kinase...

During recent decades, bewildering progress has occurred in the field of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. Progress has been extraordinarily rapid primarily because of the challenge for finding solutions to a wide variety of diseases and the availability of new techniques for monitoring biochemical processes. This has resulted in a voluminous and complex literature in the field of biochemical medicine so that there is a clear need for the synthesis and analysis of the continuing expansion of valuable data. It was thus considered appropriate to initiate a new series of monographs, each...

Even a casual search of recent literature would show that the involvement of transglutaminases in a great variety of biological reactions has captured the imagination of many investigators. The present volume of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry is a reflection of this growing interest. Transglutaminases catalyze the post-translational modification of proteinbound glutamine residues which either causes protein cross-linking by 'Y-glutamyl-e-Iysine peptide bridges or covalent incorporation of small molecular weight amines. These reactions could have far-reaching effects on altering the...

This special issue of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry contains twenty-two selected research papers and reviews from a total of one hundred and ten presentations given at the 12th International Symposium on ADP-ribosylation Reactions: From Bacterial Pathogenesis to Cancer, held in Cancun, Mexico, May 10-14, 1997. The Symposium was hosted by the Sociedad Mexicana de Bioquimica and was sponsored by the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA.
This volume provides a state-of-the-art source of information for basic scientists and clinicians who are...

Despite the considerable success in treating diseases of the heart and blood vessels, they still remain the major cause of mortality throughout the world. One of the reasons underlying this problem is our lack of understanding of the molecular and cellular aspects of the processes involved.
These problems are fully discussed in Cellular Interactions in Cardiac Pathophysiology, which draws together 25 contributions from leading investigators from all parts of the world. The contributions are grouped under three headings: Extracellular matrix and cardiocyte interaction;...