With the discovery of an ever increasing number of biogenetic
polypeptides in the autonomic nervous system, it is evident that nervous
transmission is controlled and modified not only by a series of
classical transmitters but also by a variety of co-transmitters and
modulators. Purifi- cation, characterization and synthesis of
neuropeptides and peptide families allows the application of specific
anti- bodies for radioimmunological, immunohistochemical and
immunocytochemical localization. Transmitter interactions and phenotypic
neuronal plasticity can be analyzed by pharmacological or surgical
manipulations. Biochemical and autoradiographic determination of
specific membrane receptors enables the recognition of peptide target
struc- tures. In addition, neurophysiological techniques in combi-
nation with histochemical methods result in functional interpretations.
With regard to somatic manifestations of autonomic nervous disturbances
these studies will offer fundamental insights for clinical medicine.
This volume contains the refereed proceedings of recent investigations
on histochemistry and cell biology of auton- omic neurons and
paraganglia which were presented at an international colloquium on
nervous transmission in Heidelberg in September 1986. The colloquium was
origi- nally planned to be held under the presidency of Olavi Eranko but
was continued by the editor after his death. It was sponsored by the
German Research Foundation and took place on the occasion of the 600th
anniversary of the Heidelberg University "Ruperto Carola" as part of the
pro- gram in the international "Wissenschaftsforum". Hopefully, the
information provided in this book will stimu- late new ideas and
research strategies in the field of neu roscience.
