Neural Injury and Regeneration. This item is unavailable.Neural Injury and Regeneration

This volume describes the mechanisms by which the nervous system is injured in disease and in trauma, examines repair or regenerative responses, and explores a variety of therapeutic interventions for reducing or reversing neural injury. More than 70 leading international investigators from clinical and basic science disciplines review the most significant new research and suggest novel therapeutic approaches. The major areas covered are regeneration in Azlheimer disease and aging; myelin injury and repair; physiology of spinal cord injury; cell and tissue transplantation in spinal cord injury; steroid hormones and neuronal regeneration; regulatory genes in regeneration and plasticity; and functions of phagocytic cells in the nervous system.
The book includes new findings on plasticity in the aged brain and the Alzheimer disease brain, on demyelination and other pathological changes in human spinal cord injury, on remyelination in experimental spinal cord injury, and on the functions of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in the remyelination process. The section on steroid hormones explores the therapeutic potential of gonadal steroids, examines the therapeutic actions of glucocorticoids administered after spinal cord trauma, and proposes strategies for developing new pharmacological therapies for acute spinal cord injury. Close attention is given to evidence that the beneficial effects of glucocorticoids derived from inhibition of lipid peroxidation can be duplicated by nonsteroidal lipid antioxidants.
Noted investigators discuss current concepts and hypotheses on the significance of immediate early genes and stress (heat shock) genes and proteins in regeneration after brain injury. The extensive section on phagocytic cells highlights major recent discoveries about the functions of microglia in the central nervous system - the effects of their secretion products, their ability to produce reactive oxygen species in the central nervous system, the activation of these cells prior to inflammation, and their growth factors and receptors. Other contributors describe the functions of macrophages in demyelinative diseases of the peripheral nervous system and demonstrate that macrophages play a decisive role in central and peripheral nervous system degeneration and regeneration.
This volume is an essential source of information for neurologists, pharmacologists, and basic neuroscientists. It offers direction for investigating the complex mechanisms of neural injury and regeneration and developing new therapies for many disorders of the nervous system.