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Provides comprehensive, updated information on the structure, and cell and molecular biology of the vertebrate pineal organ, which is the source of the "timing hormone" melatonin.
Provides comprehensive, updated information on the structure, and cell and molecular biology of the vertebrate pineal organ, which is the source of the "timing hormone" melatonin.
Provides comprehensive, updated information on the structure, and cell and molecular biology of the vertebrate pineal organ, which is the source of the "timing hormone" melatonin.
The link between the pineal gland and cancer is a rapidly emerging research field due to promising experimental and clinical trials with melatonin. The pineal gland acts as a transducer of environmental light to regulate rhythmic processes, including reproductive function in seasonally breeding animals and the entrainment of circadian rhythms, such as the sleep-wake cycle, in man. This book elucidates the physiological significance of the pineal gland and surveys phenomena and mechanisms of pineal - tumor interaction at the neuroendocrine, neuroimmune, neural, and molecular levels. Yet unidentified low-molecular-weight pineal substances with tumor-inhibiting capacity, a possible involvement of melatonin in electromagnetic field effects on cancer, and the oncotherapeutic potential of melatonin are also addressed. The encouraging results should incite further research to elucidate the exact nature of the link between the pineal gland and cancer for the benefit of patients.
Addressed primarily to researchers of fish, but also of possible interest to researchers of biological rhythms in general, 19 papers from a workshop near Montreal, August 1991, discuss aspects of the biorhythms of fishes as they apply to aquaculture and to reactions to the pollution of natural habit
With the invitation to edit this volume, I wanted to take the opportunity to assemble reviews on different aspects of circadian clocks and rhythms. Although most c- tributions in this volume focus on mammalian circadian clocks, the historical int- duction and comparative clocks section illustrate the importance of various other organisms in deciphering the mechanisms and principles of circadian biology. Circadian rhythms have been studied for centuries, but only recently, a mole- lar understanding of this process has emerged. This has taken research on circadian clocks from mystic phenomenology to a mechanistic level; chains of molecular events can describe phenomena with remarkable accuracy. Nevertheless, current models of the functioning of circadian clocks are still rudimentary. This is not due to the faultiness of discovered mechanisms, but due to the lack of undiscovered processes involved in contributing to circadian rhythmicity. We know for example, that the general circadian mechanism is not regulated equally in all tissues of m- mals. Hence, a lot still needs to be discovered to get a full understanding of cir- dian rhythms at the systems level. In this respect, technology has advanced at high speed in the last years and provided us with data illustrating the sheer complexity of regulation of physiological processes in organisms. To handle this information, computer aided integration of the results is of utmost importance in order to d- cover novel concepts that ultimately need to be tested experimentally.
The pineal gland has been a subject of interest and speculation for more than 2000 years. Greek anatomists were impressed by the ob servation that the pineal gland is an unpaired structure and they believed that it regulated the flow of thoughts. The philosopher Descartes proposed an important role for this organ in brain function. At the beginning of the 20th century experiments by several investi gators indicated that the pineal influenced sexual function and skin pigmentation and was also responsive to light signals. With the iso lation of melatonin from bovine pineal glands by Lerner and cowork ers in 1958 the modern era of pineal research was initiated. Within a few years the pathway for the biosynthesis of melatonin in the pineal was elucidated. Soon thereafter it was shown that the formation of melatonin was influenced by environmental lighting. Ana tomists found that the pineal was innervated by sympathetic nerves and that the gland had photoreceptor elements. It was also shown that the gonads were influenced by light via the pineal gland. Research on the pineal gland became of increasing interest to anatomists, bioche mists, pharmacologists and endocrinologists. With the expanding know ledge concerning the function of the pineal gland contributed by the wide variety of disciplines, it was thought that a study workshop would be timely.
This book presents the basic concepts of melatonin action at a cellular level to immediate applications in clinical medicine. It examines how the perception of melatonin's physiological role has developed in the last decades with a special focus on sleep and melatonin's effects.
This work is a guidebook for clinicians who are involved in treating depressive patients and also serves the research scientists who are working on the psychopharmacological mechanisms of antidepressant actions and psychopathological mechanisms underlying mood disorders. Mood disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BPD) and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) are the most disabling disorders that are among the most expensive of all medical illnesses. The pathophysiology of mood disorders is very complex and involves many mechanisms like circadian rhythm disruption, sleep abnormalities, melatonin rhythm abnormalities and alterations in melatonin receptor mechanisms, abnormalities in monoaminergic neurotransmitter mechanisms, glutamatergic release mechanisms, hippocampal neurogenesis, and abnormal immune and cytokine release mechanisms. Many antidepressants that are in clinical use today including the recently introduced novel agents like agomelatine or other antidepressants cause clinical remission by resynchronizing disrupted circadian rhythms and melatonin receptor functions, enhancing monoaminergic neurotransmission, promoting hippocampal neurogenesis, and regulating immune mechanisms. This book explains various etiological factors that are involved in the pathogenesis of mood disorders and the mechanisms of therapeutic actions of antidepressants including the recently introduced agomelatine and other antidepressants that exhibit rapid onset of action with greater efficacy and fewer side effects. .
In the forty years since melatonin's isolation and characterization, a large and multifaceted database has accrued. This book documents the diverse research contributions of most of the major laboratories in the field of melatonin research, as presented in a special conference to mark the 40 year anniversary of the isolation and chemical identification of this hormone. In addition, many chapters by younger scientists provide an exciting glimpse of where melatonin research is heading in the future.