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The Retina: A Model for Cell Biology Studies, Part I, is the first of a two-part series that details developments in the study of retinal cell biology. The book begins with some basic information about retinal structure and development followed by a discussion of the advantages of the retina as a model system for cell biology studies. It reviews some of the major events in the maturation of the retina pertinent to the assembly of neuronal circuits. The book describes studies of neuronal assembly in order to demonstrate that adhesion-based neuronal assembly may be the most elaborated example of a wider class of morphogenetic phenomena categorized as ""adhesion-guided multicellular assembly"" systems. The remaining chapters discuss in vivo and in vitro studies on trophic interactions in retinal development and in retinal degenerations; cell motility in the retina; molecular properties of vertebrate rod cells; the role of cyclic nucleotides in the metabolism and function of the retina; and the cellular and molecular aspects of photosensitive membrane turnover.
The Retina: A Model for Cell Biology Studies, Part II, is the second of a two-part series that details developments in the study of retinal cell biology. The book begins with a review of the current evidence for the role of putative neurotransmitters at particular synapses in the retina. It then discusses pre- and postsynaptic regulatory mechanisms; the interactions of neurotransmitter-neuromodulatory systems; and cellular effects of putative neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. This is followed by an introduction to vision psychophysics, showing its application in studying the functioning of cells in the retina. The remaining chapters discuss how the retinal pigment epithelium cell might be used as a model for studying biological problems of current interest; extracellular matrix molecules; concepts and controversies regarding the biology of endothelial cells, the key elements in the phenomenon of intraocular neovascularization; the use of genetic mutations and genetic mosaics for the study of the retina; and the retina as a regenerating organ.
This important book presents review articles on the cell biology of photoreceptor and RPE cells, as well as the relationship between this cell biology and inherited photoreceptor degeneration. The chapters have been written by leaders in the field. The vision scientist will see this book as a review of photoreceptor and RPE cell biology, and known molecular bases of many forms of retinitis pigmentosa and related retinal degeneration.
My first introduction to the eye came more than three decades ago when my close friend and mentor, the late Professor Isaac C. Michaelson, convinced me that studying the biochemistry of ocular tissues would be a rewarding pursuit. I hastened to explain that I knew nothing about the subject, since relatively few basic biochemical studies on ocular tissues had appeared in the world literature. Professor Michaelson assured me, however, that two books on eye biochemistry had already been written. One of them, a beautiful monograph by Arlington Krause ( 1934) of Johns Hopkins Hospital, is we II worth reading even today for its historical perspective. The other, published 22 years later, was written by Antoinette Pirie and Ruth van Heyningen ( 1956), whose pioneering achievements in eye biochemistry at the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology in Oxford, England are known throughout the eye research community and beyond. To their credit are classical investigations on retinal, corneal, and lens biochemistry, beginning in the 1940s and continuing for many decades thereafter. Their important book written in 1956 on the Biochemistry of the Eye is a volume that stood out as a landmark in this field for many years. In recent years, however, a spectacular amount of new information has been gener ated in ocular biochemistry. Moreover, there is increasing specialization among investiga tors in either a specific field of biochemistry or a particular ocular tissue.
Although there are over 400,000 people each year in the United States alone who suffer from traumatic injury to the central nervous system (CNS), no phar macological treatment is currently available. Considering the enormity of the problem in terms of human tragedy as well as the economic burden to families and societies alike, it is surprising that so little effort is being made to develop treatments for these disorders. Although no one can become inured to the victims of brain or spinal cord injuries, one reason that insufficient time and effort have been devoted to research on recovery is that it is a generally held medical belief that nervous system injuries are simply not amenable to treatment. At best, current therapies are aimed at providing symptomatic relief or focus on re habilitative measures and the teaching of alternative behavioral strategies to help patients cope with their impairments, with only marginal results in many cases. Only within the last decade have neuroscientists begun to make serious inroads into understanding and examining the inherent "plasticity" found in the adult CNS. Ten years or so ago, very few researchers or clinicians would have thought that damaged central neurons could sprout new terminals or that intact nerve fibers in a damaged pathway could proliferate to replace inputs from neurons that died as a result of injury.