Thyroid Hormones: Biosynthesis, Physiological Effects, and Mechanisms of Action

Western knowledge of progress in biomedical research in Russia is severely limited by the scarcity of Russian journals available to us as well as the fact that few of us can read Russian. Therefore, it is of special significance that this recent contribution to the Russian scientific literature has been trans­ lated into English. This publication, Thyroid Hormones, brings to us a detailed analysis of recent work in Russia, and in particular in the Laboratory of Hormone Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry, Academy of Science of the Uzbek SSR and the Laboratory of Pathological Physiology, Institute of Experi­ mental Endocrinology and Hormone Chemistry, Academy Medical of Science of the USSR. The review illustrates the parallel pathways of inves­ tigation taken by investigators in Russia and in the West, indicating where the results have complemented each other or stimulated new questions and approaches. Consequently, the book provides an excellent review of the contributions made by Russian scientists in thyroid research and couples it with Western thought on these subjects to produce a complete review of the thyroid hormones. The large amount of data provided and the inclusion of multiple view­ points toward specific problems provides an excellent survey of the mecha­ nisms of biosynthesis and control of hormone formation, physiological effects of the hormones, and the molecular mechanisms involved in thyroid hormone action.