Stress Response: Methods and Protocols

Stress Response: Methods and Protocols Editor: Keyse, Stephen M. (Univ of Dundee) , Bibliographic Data: (ISBN: 0-896036-11-1, Humana Press Inc., 2000, $99.50) 488 pages, Contributors, hard cover. Audiences: Researchers Subjects: Physiology, Molecular Biology Other Info: The book contains black-and-white illustrations. , Reviewed by: Michael B. Lilly, MD , (Loma Linda University) DESCRIPTION: The realization that the mammalian stress response may be intimately linked with many human diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, ischemia, fever, infection, and cancer, has led to an explosion of interest in this research area. This recent offering in the Methods in Molecular Biology series brings together a diverse array of practical methodologies that may be employed to address various aspects of the response of mammalian cells to environmental stress. PURPOSE: The purpose is to present protocols that carry sufficient background information and experimental detail to be used as a primary reference at the laboratory bench. In addition the volume serves to highlight current areas of interest in stress response-related studies. As such the book succeeds reasonably well. A broad range of laboratory techniques, including methods for cell analysis, protein biochemistry, and molecular studies, are included. AUDIENCE: The primary audience is the laboratory worker who is becoming acquainted with the field of stress-related studies. Likely such researchers will find this volume quite useful. The volume editor, and most of the chapter authors, are well-known experts in the field, with immense personal experience in the procedures described. FEATURES: This book presents protocols grouped in four sections: detection of stress-induced damage, stress-induced signal transduction, stress-induced differential gene expression, and analysis of stress protein function. The abundant technical information in most chapters should allow adaptation of the protocols by anyone generally familiar with molecular biology. This volume emphasizes changes in protein activity or expression in response to various stresses. Curiously, there is little information on methods for assessing changes in small molecule antioxidant systems (such as glutathione), redox systems, or lipid modifications. In addition the methods for analysis of differentially expressed genes are slightly dated by the inclusion of a chapter on differential display but none on suitable DNA microarrays. The chapters on SABRE and SAGE technologies for enrichment of differentially expressed cDNAs are timely and helpful, however. ASSESSMENT: This should be a useful addition to laboratories moving into the areas of stress or oxidant response studies, particularly if they focus on kinases or protein modification. SCORE: Weighted Numerical Score: 74 - ***