Biochemistry of Blood Platelets

Due to the scope of the discipline, an annual survey of teratology must encompass a broad spectrum of findings from the bio-medical sciences. The first volume in this series does range topically in including reviews on aspects of cytogenetic, pharmacological, radiobiological, and immunological problems. If a field such as teratology is to be reviewed, one cannot expect a high degree of correspondence between individual articles; however, one does expect to find reviews that center on teratological problems. Other-wvise, these reviews might be of greater value if included in journals or review works germane to particular areas. In this first volume, the editor has skillfully delimited the presentation, and it is hoped that particular articles in coming additions to the series will be as carefully edited, as well as selected. Certain chapters in Volume I will be of interest to a wide range of readers. The role of chromosomes in Down's syndrome and the Lyon hypothesis are covered in the first two chapters. Mary Lyon's review of the development and evidence for her theory of X-chromosome inactivation in female mammals will be cited for some time. A broad survey on the development of immunocompetence and the significance of the maternal-fetal immuno-logic systems is well done by Robert Brent. In other chapters, radiation, viral, and drug aetiologies for malformations are discussed. With the continuance of this series, one should not envisage a restriction in the scope of the presentation; rather, the series will be a valuable contribution if it can aid in introducing workers in this area to information from diverse fields that has relevance to teratology. This reviewer feels that there is a role for a series that does not attempt to narrow a problem, but rather, summarizes progress in areas that might influence thought in the discipline as a whole. This recent volume is the proceedings of a colloquium held in Warsaw in April, 1966. The speed with which this book appeared makes it valuable as an insight into what many of the outstanding investigators in the field of platelet biochemistry are doing. It also points up one of the things which bedevil even the most talented investigators in the field: the difficulty of working with such fragile cells and gathering reproducible data. The reaction between platelets and damaged blood vessels is thought to be mediated through adenosine diphosphate. It is only natural, then, to find several papers dealing with …