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This two-volume treatise, the collected effort of more than 50 authors, represents the first comprehensive survey of the chemistry and biology of the set of molecules known as peptide growth factors. Although there have been many symposia on this topic, and numerous publications of reviews dealing with selected subsets of growth factors, the entire field has never been covered in a single treatise. It is essential to do this at the present time, as the number of journal articles on peptide growth factors now makes it almost impossible for anyone person to stay informed on this subject by reading the primary literature. At the same time it is becoming increasingly apparent that these substances are of universal importance in biology and medicine and that the original classification of these molecules, based on the laboratory setting of their discovery, as "growth factors," "lymphokines," "cytokines," or "colony stimulating factors," was quite artifactual; they are in fact the basis of a com mon language for intercellular communication. As a set they affect essentially every cell in the body, and in this regard they provide the basis to develop a unified science of cell biology, germane to all of biomedical research. This treatise is divided into four main sections. After three introductory chapters, its principal focus is the detailed description of each of the major peptide growth factors in 26 individual chapters.
List of contents
Section A: Introduction.- 1 The Multifunctional Nature of Peptide Growth Factors.- 2 Isolation and Characterization of Growth Factors.- 3 Properties and Regulation of Receptors for Growth Factors.- Section B: Individual Growth Factors and Their Receptors.- 4 The Epidermal Growth Factor Family.- 5 Platelet-Derived Growth Factor.- 6 Insulin-Like Growth Factors.- 7 Fibroblast Growth Factors.- 8 The Transforming Growth Factor-?s.- 9 Interleukin-1.- 10 Interleukin-2.- 11 Interleukin-3.- 12 Interleukin-4.- 13 Interleukin-5.- 14 Interleukin-6.- 15 Colony-Stimulating Factor 1 (Macrophage Colony-Stimulating-Factor).- 16 Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor.- 17 Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor.- 18 Erythropoietin: The Primary Regulator of Red Cell Formation.- Appendix A. Alternate Names for Growth Factors.- Appendix B. Chromosomal Locations of Growth Factors/Growth Factor Receptors.
