Proteins of the Nervous System. ISBN 0 911216 54 5

Physical and chemical methods for studying protein structure and properties allow more sophisticated analyses of primary structure, three dimensional conformation, and immunochemical properties. One of the most exciting developments has been the availability of cloned tissue culture lines derived from various types of nervous tissue system cells, such as gliomas, neuroblastomas, and Schwannomas. These retain many of the characteristics of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including process formation, action potential propagation, transmitter synthesis, and the production of nervous system specific proteins. The batch separation of neurons and glia and wet or dry dissection of single cells have provided interesting new data, as have methods for subcellular fractionation to yield nerve ending particles, synaptic vesicles, and, in particular, pure membranes such as myelin and synaptic membranes. The volume focuses on those proteins which, on the basis of current evidence, seem to relate to specific nervous system function but which are not directly involved in enzymatic reactions, as well as on the identification of new proteins. There are separate chapters on brain specific proteins, myelin specific proteins, proteolopids, nerve growth factor, synaptic membrane proteins, microtubules and axoplasmic transport.