978 Book Reviews
and the presentation is high. The chapters deal with spinal
cord anatomy, organization, afferent inputs, synapses in the
dorsal horn, synapses in the central gray matter, membrane
properties of cat spinal motoneurones, dendrites and
motoneuronal integration, mammalian motor units, ex-
citatory synapses, spinal inhibition, recurrent inhibition,
muscle receptors, spinal mechanisms for the control of
muscle length and tension, central pattern generators in the
spinal cord, spinal lemniscal pathways, dorsal horn mech-
anisms of pain, spinal cord and autonomic NS, local spinal
cord blood flow and oxygen metabolism.
The references at the end of each chapter are given with
full titles of papers and there is a very extensive author
index at the back of the volume so that every author cited
can be easily located. The volumes provide an excellent
addition to the review literature on the spinal cord.
Pat~physioiogy of Plasma Protein Meta~lis~Edited by
G. Mariani. 402 pp. 1984. Plenum Press, New York. $59.50.
The regulation and control of the levels of albumin,
immunoglobulins, complement proteins, acute phase pro-
teins, fibrinogen, antithrombins, apolipoproteins AI and
AH, and tumour produced proteins are discussed in this
proceedings of a symposium held in Pisa.
There is emphasis on the mathemati~i modeling of
protein metabolism, so that one could predict the levels of
plasma proteins following plasmaphoresis treatment used in
auto-immune diseases. In addition to chapters on the
plasma proteins described above, there are reviews on lipid
disorders and atherogenesis, protein-energy malnutrition,
and transferrins.
Cardiology: An international Perspective--Edited by E.
Chazov, V. N. Smirnov and R. G. Oganov. Two volumes.
1421 pp. 1984. Plenum Press, New York.
These two volumes are the published proceedings of the
World Congress of Cardiology held in Moscow in 1982.
The first section contains the lectures on the physio-
pathology of essential hypertension; control and treatment
of arterial hypertension; metabolism of the ischaemic heart;
calcium and cardiovascular disease; coronary artery disease
in children; atherosclerosis; cardiomyopathies; thrombosis;
echocardigraphy; ventricular arrhythmias; anti-arrhythmic
drugs.
These topics are considerably expanded in the later
sections of the volumes and provide an interesting picture
of the manner in which many investigators throughout the
world are studying cardiovascular diseases. If you are
working on this subject then the present volumes will
certainly contain information of importance to you.
M~icinai Chemistry; A Bioc~mieal Approach. Tbomas
Nogrady. 449 pp. 1985. Oxford University Press, New
York. $27.95 paperback, $47.50 hard covers.
The understanding of the mechanism of drug action and the
search for new drugs is based on the nature of the
interaction between the drug and the receptor site in the cell
membrane. The present book deals with the molecular
action of drugs on the receptor complex. The main chapters
of the book are; physicochemical principles of drug action;
receptor-effecter theories; methods of receptor character-
ization; drugs acting on neurotransmitters and their recep-
tors; drugs acting on hormones, neurohormones and their
receptors; non-messenger targets for drug action; drug
distribution and metabolism; principles of drug design;
appendix A, generic list of drugs; appendix B, list of drugs
arranged by pharmacological activity.
The book is clearly written and well illustrated and will
give the reader a better understanding of the mechanisms
of drug action as well as insight into the development of
new drugs.
Pharmacology of Intestinal Permeatioo-Edited by T. Z.
Csaky. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Volume
70, parts I and II. Part I, 708 pp. 1984. Springer-Verlag,
Berlin. DM 580, $216. Part Ii, 589 pp. 1984. Springer-
Veriag, Berlin. DM 480, $188.
Intestinal permeatian refers to the process of passage of
substances across the gut wall, either from the lumen to the
blood or lymph or vice versa. This is controlled by the
permeability of the gut. These two volumes provide reviews
of the following aspects of the subject.
Volume I. Morphology of the intestinal mucosa; intes-
tinal permeability; methods for investigating intestinal
permeability; vascular perfusion of rat small intestine for
permeation and metabolism studies; isolated membrane
vesicles in the study of intestinal permeability; the transport
carrier principle; energetics of intestinal absorption; polar-
ity of intestinal epithelial cells, permeability of brush border
and basolateral membranes; electrical phenomena and ion
transport in the small intestine; intestinal permeation of
water; intestinal permeability to calcium and phosphate;
protein-mediated epithelial iron transfer; intestinal absorp-
tion of heavy metals; intestinal absorption of sugars, amino
acids and peptides; pharmacologic aspects of permeability
to lipids; absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, physiology and
pharmacology.
Volume II. Intestinal absorption of xenobiotics; role of
digestive enzymes in the permeability of the enterocyte; the
surface pH of the intestinal mucus and its significance in
the permeability of organic anions; the role of the unstirred
water layer in intestinal permeability; intestinal permeation
of organic bases and quarternary ammonium compounds;
role of blood flow in intestinal permeation; hormonal
effects on intestinal permeability; influence of opiates on
intestinal transport; effect of cholera endotoxin on intestinal
pe~eabi~ity; aspects of bacterial endotoxins other than
cholera on intestinal permeability; mechanisms of action of
laxative drugs: action mechanism of secretagogue drugs; use
and abuse of cathartics; intestinal permeability studies in
humans.
The gut is still the main route for drug administration
and so its ~~eability and properties are of considerable
importance in determining the pharmacod~amics of drug
action. The present volumes with their expertiy written
chapters provide an excellent review of the different aspects
of gut permeability and will be essential to physiologists
who wish to understand the basic problems of gut perme-
ability and to pharmacologists concerned with the passage
of drugs from the gut to the tissues of the body.
Dopamine Receptor AgonistsEdited by G. Poste and S. T.
Crooke. 388 pp. 1984. Plenum Press, New York. $55.
This is the first volume in a series of symposia on “New
Horizons in Therapeutics” founded by Smith. Kline and
French.
The realization that dopamine (DA) was a neu-
totransmitter like adrenaline and noradrenahne led to a
boost in DA research especially when DA was shown to be
involved in Parkinson’s disease, hyperprolactinemia, certain
pituitary tumors, and in the therapy of cardiovascular
shock. The differentiation of different types of DA recep-
tors and their specific antagonists promises selective treat-
ment of those in the gut, kidney, heart and specific regions
of the vascular bed.