| Maintaining extracellular calcium concentrations within a narrow range is critical for the survival of most vertebrates. PTH, together with vitamin D, responds to hypocalcemia to increase extracellular calcium levels, by acting on bone, kidney and intestine. The recent introduction of PTH as a major therapeutic agent in osteoporosis has directed renewed interest in this important hormone and in the physiology of the parathyroid gland. The parathyroid is unique in that low serum calcium stimulates PTH secretion. As hypocalcemia persists, there is also an increase in PTH synthesis. Chronic hypocalcemia leads to hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the parathyroid gland together with increased production of the hormone. Phosphate is also a key modulator of PTH secretion, gene expression and parathyroid cell proliferation.
Understanding the biology of the parathyroid as well as the mechanisms of associated diseases has taken great strides in recent years. This book summarizes the molecular mechanisms involved in the function of the parathyroid gland. The first chapter reviews the development of the parathyroid gland and the genes involved in this process as identified using genetically manipulated mice. Then the biosynthetic pathway of PTH from gene expression to its intracellular processing and the sequences in the gene controlling its transcription as well as those regulating mRNA processing, stability and translation are described. Studies on the structure of PTH with correlations to its function are presented and provide a starting point for understanding the recognition of the PTH ligand by its receptor the PTH/PTHrP or PTH1 receptor. |
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| | All the Mathematics You Missed But Need to Know for Graduate School"Point set topology, complex analysis, differential forms, the curvature of surfaces, the axiom of choice, Lebesgue integration, Fourier analysis, algorithms, and differential equations.... I found these sections to be the high points of the book. They were a sound introduction to material that some but not all graduate students will... | | |
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