Abraham Rosenberg assembles the groundbreaking work of preeminent international scientists to provide the most current, state-of-the-art presentation of research in siabiology. This concise volume examines the historical development of the field and reviews current knowledge on the genetic, immunologic, oncologic, neurodevelopmental, pathogenic, and cell regulatory properties of sialic acid. Outstanding features of this work include exhaustive reference material and detailed information tables.

There is a startling amount of research activity concerning the role of sialic acid in mammalian cells and in the mammalian organism. One may discern in the early literature premonitions of compounds containing sialic acid, traceable by descriptions of color reactions, as far back as the turn of the century. Work spanning the 1930s to the 1950s culmi nated in the crystallization of sialic acid from a wide variety of biological materials. The ubiquitous nature of the sialic acids, and the biological importance of the substances in which they occur, then became generally manifest. Since then,...