Main description:

Leading international experts contribute to this selection of reviews covering the merging fields of growth factors, differentiation factors, and cytokines. These appear to play fundamental roles in a wide variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes that include the regulation of growth in normal and malignant cells, embryogenesis, the immune response, wound healing, inflammation, and atherogenesis. The major aspects of recent research and development are discussed, providing an important update in this pioneering field.

Contents:

Peptide Growth Factors.- Growth Factor Receptors: The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor as a Model.- Epidermal Growth Factor: Biology and Properties of its Gene and Protein Precursor.- Platelet-Derived Growth Factor: Formation and Biological Activities.- Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor: Properties and Clinical Implications.- Transforming Growth Factor-?.- Distinctive Features of Nerve Growth Factor: Structure, and Function.- Hematopoetic Growth and Differentiation Factors.- Interleukin 1.- Interleukin 2.- Interleukin 3: A Multilineage Hematopoietic Growth Factor.- Multiple Functions of Interleukin 4 and its Role in Immune Regulation.- Interleukin 5 as a Hematopoietic Cell Growth and Differentiation Factor.- Interleukin 6.- The Hemopoietic Growth Factor, Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor.- Colony Stimulating Factor-1.- Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor.- Chicken Myelomonocytic Growth Factor.- Experimental and Clinical Evaluation of Erythropoietin.- Interferons.- Interactions of 1?,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 and Hematopoietic Cells.- Oncogenes, Growth Factors, and Disease.- Autocrine Stimulation of Growth of Normal and Transformed Cells.- Growth Factors, Inflammation, and Atherosclerosis.- Autocrine and Paracrine Stimulation of Growth in Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia.- Local Production of Platelet-Derived Growth Factor in the Human Atherosclerotic Plaque.- Growth Factor Inducible Genes in Fibroblasts.- The Role of Gene Dosage in Progression of Tumors.- The Biology of Cachectin/Tumor Necrosis Factor.- Oncogenes and Transgenic Mice.- Mechanisms of Signal Transduction.- Growth Factors and Polyphosphoinositide Metabolism.- Structure and Function of Signal-Transducing, Heterotrimeric Guanosine Triphosphate Binding Proteins.- The Protein Kinase C Family.- Signal Transduction and Ion Channel Activity.- NA+/H+ Exchange.- Adenylyl Cyclases.