The Biology and Chemistry of Polyamines (ICSU Symposium Series)

The multifarious role of polyamines in controlling metabolic processes is quite well known and documented, as shown by the impressive increase of the pertinent literature in the last decade. Specialized international meetings take place in several parts of the world to report and discuss progress in different studies on polyamines. One of these meetings, an Argentine-Japanese Joint Seminar, was held in Buenos Aires from 9-12 April, 1989, with the participation of scientists from Argentina, Japan, United States, Finland, Sweden, Israel, Italy and England. The contributions presented served to mark the state of the art in some aspects of the biology and chemistry of polyamines, and thus enable the continued progress in the understanding of the multiple roles of these polycations. Topics for presentation included the involvement of polyamines in metabolic regulation, mammalian cell growth and differentiation, the role of polymaines in micro-organisms and viruses, and the design of polyamine analogues. Polyamines play a vital part in normal cellular development and disease and the record of this meeting provides valuable insights for researchers in a variety of biomedical fields.