Naoyuki Taniguchi

Michio Mori

Michihiro C. Yoshida

Noritoshi Takeichi

The LEC strain of rats, which spontaneously develop acute hepatitis as sociated with jaundice, chronic hepatitis, and ultimately hepatocellular carcinomas, was established by scientists in Sapporo, Japan. Careful ob servation and breeding led to the initial discovery of this characteristic, inherited liver disease in rats. Subsequent collaboration between scientists in Sapporo and other centers has revealed an autosomal recessive nature of inheritance, along with a variety of histopathological and biochemical findings. The causative mechanism(s) underlying this abnormality remained a mystery for some time, providing a challenge for many scientists who were attracted to the quest for clues to this enigma. In particular, the mech anism of spontaneous development of hepatocellular carcinomas in rats overcoming the acute phase of hepatitis and surviving with chronic hepatitis proved extremely interesting, because the involvement of a causative virus had been excluded in the early stages of investigation. Professor Michio Mori of Sapporo Medical College played a key role in the study of LEC rats, especially in the elucidation of the pathogenesis of hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. He is one of the editors of this monograph which is composed of original contributions by the many scientists who have carried out their own studies on LEC rats. Of the various histopathological and biochemical alterations which have been reported, some are clearly secondary or tertiary events sequential to the primary change caused by gene mutation.

A New Model for Hepatitis and Liver Cancer

The LEC Rat

Minoru Fukuda

Koichi Honke

The so-called postgenomic research era has now been launched, and the field of gly cobiology and glycotechnology has become one of the most important areas in life science because glycosylation is the most common post-translational modification reaction of proteins in vivo. On the basis of Swiss-Prot data, over 50% proteins are known to undergo glycosylation, but in fact the actual functions of most of the sugar chains in the glycoconjugates remain unknown. The complex carbohydrate chains of glycoproteins, glycolipids, and proteoglycans represent the secondary gene products formed through the reactions of glycosyl transferases. The regulation of the biosynthesis of sugar chains is under the control of the expression of glycosyltransferases, their substrate specificity, and their local ization in specific tissue sites. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that these enzymes play pivotal roles in a variety of important cellular differentiation and developmental events, as well as in disease processes. Over 300 glycosyltransferases appear to exist in mammalian tissues. If the genes that have been purified and cloned from various species such as humans, cattle, pigs, rats and mice are counted as one, approximately 110 glycogenes that encode glycosyltransferases and related genes have been cloned at present, and this number continues to grow each day. However, most of the functions of the glycosyltransferase genes and related genes are unknown. This fact has stimulated numerous new and interesting approaches in molecular biologi cal investigations.

Handbook of Glycosyltransferases and Related Genes

Akemi Suzuki

Yukishige Ito

Hisashi Narimatsu

Toshisuke Kawasaki

Sumihiro Hase

The aim of this book is to provide experimental protocols covering many aspects of glycobiology, glycotechnology, and chemistry: biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, physiology, and medicine. The protocols are all self-contained descriptions of the equipment and reagents needed, followed by details of the experimental procedure. In the post-genomic era, glycobiology is coming of age because more than half of proteins are glycosylated and the importance of sugar chains in various fields of life science research cannot be disregarded. Many scientists had not entered this area because glycobiology and glycoscience used to be considered difficult fields. This book, therefore, is presented much like a cookbook which can help scientists in fields other than glycobiology and glycoscience carry out research more easily.

Glycochemistry

Experimental Glycoscience

Peng George Wang

Tingwei Bill Cai

Nitric oxide is a highly potent regulatory molecule with great pharmaceutical potential. This handbook fills a real gap in combining the chemistry of nitric oxide releasing substances with their practical applications in biology and drug design. It covers all classes of nitric oxide donors, from organic nitrates to nitroso compounds, guanidines and metal-NO complexes. In addition to a detailed treatment of the chemistry of NO donors, numerous examples of successful diagnostic and pharmacological applications are discussed, as well as further therapeutic targets for these substances.

For Pharmaceutical and Biological Applications

Nitric Oxide Donors

Tadashi Suzuki

Kazuaki Ohtsubo

This book presents the latest breakthrough results in glycobiology regarding the roles of glycans in relation to quality control and transport of protein, the immune system, viral infection, stem cells, the neural system, and various diseases such as cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. Although glycoscience has long been regarded as a very specialized field with no simple analytical method, the recent explosive progress in research continues to provide limitless evidence that glycan chains are the key component in various biological phenomena. Cell surface glycans, for example, change with developmental stages or environmental conditions and thus represent a “face” of the cell that is utilized for identification of iPS and ES cells and as biomarkers in diagnosis or detection of cancer. This book comprises 17 chapters, each of which poses outstanding “glyco-related” questions enabling non-specialists to have a clearer idea about what the future direction for further investigation of glycans in their own research fields will be. Also including basic information to understand the nature of glycans, this title serves as an excellent “textbook” for researchers in diverse research fields who are not familiar with, but nevertheless interested in, glycan chains or sugar chains.

Decoding the Functions of Glycans

Sugar Chains

Naoyuki Taniguchi

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