Handbook of Animal Lectins: Properties and Biomedical Applications

This comprehensive yet concise guide to animal lectins,covers all sources from unicellular protozoa and slimemoulds through invertebrates to mammals and birds, andprovides essential information to the widest possiblereadership.The last few years have seen an explosion of interest andresearch in animal lectins, and this book, which is dividedinto two parts, provides a compendium of galectins,collectins, selectins, pentraxins and othercarbohydrate-binding proteins from throughout the animalkingdom. The first part introduces animal lectins on bothphylogenetic and structural bases and outlines their keybiomedical applications. The second, and major part, is aquick reference alphabetical directory listing around 170lectins. Each lectin entry provides, where known, detailsof its:IsolationStructureBiological activitiesTissue and/or subcellular distributionPossible functionsApplicationsA bibliography for each lectin is also included and usefulappendices list lectins according to their sugar specificity,characterised lectins of human origin by tissue source andcommercial suppliers of animal lectins.This superb book is aimed at basic scientists and cliniciansalike, and will be invaluable to both established researchworkers and newcomers to this area. It will be ofparticular interest to biochemists, cell biologists,immunologists, oncologists, pharmacologists, medicalpractitioners and students of medical and biologicalsciences.