Cell Adhesion and Human Disease

From The Critics

Reviewer: Jonathon Jones, PhD(Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: This book contains a series of articles on cell adhesion and human disease.
Purpose: The articles are intended to provide a state-of-the-art analysis of our understanding of defects or modulations in cell adhesion that occur in a variety of diseases.
Audience: The audience is primarily researchers and possibly physicians.
Features: The articles are well written and documented, and the discussions among the attendees are appropriate.
Assessment: My major criticism lies in the scope of the articles. They range in discussions of integrins through epithelial cell-cell adhesion molecules. These are enormous fields, and because of this there is a lack of depth to the book. It may have been better to concentrate on one aspect only. For example, work on epithelial cell diseases (affecting cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions) could easily fill a volume such as this.

Jonathon Jones

This book contains a series of articles on cell adhesion and human disease. The articles are intended to provide a state-of-the-art analysis of our understanding of defects or modulations in cell adhesion that occur in a variety of diseases. The audience is primarily researchers and possibly physicians. The articles are well written and documented, and the discussions among the attendees are appropriate. My major criticism lies in the scope of the articles. They range in discussions of integrins through epithelial cell-cell adhesion molecules. These are enormous fields, and because of this there is a lack of depth to the book. It may have been better to concentrate on one aspect only. For example, work on epithelial cell diseases (affecting cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions) could easily fill a volume such as this.

Booknews

Focuses on the range of human diseases caused by cells not being properly able to attach themselves to other cells or to extracellular matrix molecules. Exploring mechanisms at the molecular level, provides information useful in designing new drugs to treat the diseases. Among the topics are experiments on mouse models, leukocytes, the epidermis, metastatic cancer, and the effect of several pharmaceutical agents. The symposium that generated the 14 papers and both the general and specific discussions transcribed was held in London in May 1994. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

2 Stars from Doody