Phospholipid Research and the Nervous System, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1986 Biochemical and Molecular Pharmacology FIDIA Research Series, Vol. 4

The purpose of this book is to describe the latest findings relating to biochemical and molecular pharmacology of the nervous system and phospholipids and to report the proceedings of the fourth symposium on phospholipids. These Symposia have been satellite meetings of the International Society for Neurochemistry. This meeting was held on May 26-29, 1985 in the Teatro Bibiena in Mantova, Italy. Preceding meetings were held in Cortona, Italy in 1975, in Birmingham, England in 1981, and in British Columbia, Canada in 1983. As was the case for the proceedings of those meetings, this volume presents information that is new and important from the researchers most in­ volved in advancing our knowledge of the function of membranes and of lipid metabo­ lism in the nervous system. The presence of phosphorus in the brain was reported in 1719 by Hensing at the University of Giessen in Germany. Tower! has translated this pioneering work. The rather long, philosophical preface contains the following paragraph. Regardless of what may be thought of this matter, the brain is certainly that part of the animate body in which that subtlest and most penetrating [substance] alone is received, so often circulated from the heart and cleansed by the remaining viscera, and firmly held where thereaf­ ter life flourishes and the motions of the lower parts endure.

Polyphosphoinositide breakdown without calcium mobilization: studies with adrenal chromaffin cells and retina.- Inositol lipid metabolism in receptor-stimulated and depolarized sympathetic ganglia and adrenal glands.- Second messenger generation and secretion in PC12 cells. Role of Ca++ and phosphoinositide hydrolysis.- Phosphoprotein B-50 and polyphosphoinositide-dependent signal transduction in brain.- Possible roles of inositol phospholipids in cell surface signal transduction in neuronal tissues.- Possible glial modulation of neuronal activity by eicosanoids and phosphoinositide metabolites.- Drugs affecting membrane lipid catabolism: the brain free fatty acid effect.- Unique metabolic features of decosahexaenoate metabolism related to functional roles in brain and retina.- Pharmacological agents and the release of arachidonic acid and prostaglandin biosynthesis by rabbit iris muscle.- Phospholipid metabolism in nervous tissues: modification of precursor incorporation and enzyme activities by cationic amphiphilic drugs.- Phospholipid-protein kinase C involvement in the adrenergic regulation of pinealocyte cyclic AMP: a model of how modulators act?.- The effects of ethanol on receptor activated phospholipid cascades.- Effects of ethanol on brain phospholipids.- Effects of ethanol on concentration and acyl group composition of acidic phospholipids.- The control and function of inositide-metabolizing enzymes.- Diacylglycerols and arachidonic acid in the molecular pathogenesis of brain injury.- Membrane bound diacylglycerol Upases in bovine brain: purification and characterization.- Roles of Upases in the development of autonomic neurons.- Phospholipids and membrane phenomena involved in the release of mediators of anaphylaxis.- Role of lipids during fusion of model and biological membranes.- Serine phospholipids in cell communication.- Phospholipid metabolism in aging brain.- Pharmacological properties of phosphatidylserine in the aging brain: biochemical aspects and therapeutic potential.- Essential fatty acids and phospholipids as drugs in treatment of alcoholism.- Axonally trasported phospholipids and neurite regrowth.- Effect of phosphatidylserine on cortical acetylcholine release and calcium uptake in adult and aging rats.- Synthesis de novo of choline, production of choline from phospholipids, and effects of CDP-choline on nerve cell survival.- Relationships between acetylcholine release and membrane phosphatidylcholine turnover in brain and in cultured cholinergic neurons.