The Exocrine Pancreas: Normal and Abnormal Functions

The selection of topics, caliber of participants and content of the proceedings of this symposium reflect the high standards of the Ciba Foundation for scientific excellence. The broad range of topics covered by international authorities, together with the discussion, has been extremely well edited and the material is compiled in a logical sequence. The section on ultrastructure and histochemistry points up the increasing awareness of the importance of structural relationships to cellular chemistry and function. Sections on the nature of pancreatic secretions and assessment of pancreatic function are complete and scholarly. Of particular interest is the material on physiological control of pancreatic secretion. Hokin and Hokin review their recent work on the in 7vitro synthesis and secretion of digestive enzymes by pancreatic tissue. A remarkable series of experiments spanning a 10-year period show that phosphoinositide and phosphatidic acid play an important role in the secretion of enzymes, probably by providing the carrier mechanism for the transport of proteins across cell membranes. The importance of this "phospholipid mechanism" has been emphasized by both parallel and subsequent investigations by these same workers showing that phospholipid synthesis or turnover accompanies the secretion of sodium chloride, adrenaline, ACTH, mucin, parotid amylase and pepsin. The last formal section of the symposium deals with the genetic and metabolic aspects of the abnormal pancreas. In this area, of course, evidence is fragmentary but the presentation on hereditary pancreatitis is provocative. The symposium closes with a discussion of such timely subjects as standardization of pancreatic function tests and the place of pancreatic biopsy in the practical and experimental evaluation of pancreatic disease. The book provides an extremely useful compilation of material not previously available in a single concise volume. It is well indexed and references are plentiful; illustrations are numerous and of excellent quality.