Erythropoietin in Clinical Applications [antikvár]

Foreword This most welcome volume describes a remarkable event in biomedical science. As pointed out by Leonard Zon in his fine historical chapter, erythropoietin, the only actual hormone involved in the regulation of hematopoiesis, has been known for nearly one hundred years. By the mid-1950s it had become obvious to Walter Root, professor of Physiology at Columbia University, that the fundamental basis of erythropoiesis lay in the demand of the organism for oxygen. McFarland and Robb Smith pointed out that the comparative renewal rate of the red cell is a function of energy expenditure. In fact, in a classic study, Brace showed that the renewal rate of red cells can be markedly decreased by the process of hibernation. The application of molecular biology in the task of isolation of the erythropoietin gene, described here by Edward Fritsch, has permitted much more insight into the mechanism of erythropoiesis. The cloning of the erythropoietin receptor by D'Andrea and his colleagues promises to reveal even more information, but full understanding will not come about until purification of erythroid progenitors and their interactions with the hormone are fully understood. As Alpen pointed out years ago, an increase in erythropoiesis is regulated not at the level of the proerythroblast and its rate of division into reticulocytes, but rather at the level of the erythroid progenitor and its flow into the