This study covers the sequence information, three-dimensional structures, activation, protein substrates, specificity requirements, inhibition, and biological roles of identified MMPs.

Regulated turnover of extracellular matrix (ECM) is an important component of tissue homeostasis. In recent years, the enzymes that participate in, and control ECM turnover have been the focus of research that touches on development, tissue remodeling, inflammation and disease. This volume in the Biology of Extracellular Matrix series provides a review of the known classes of proteases that degrade ECM both outside and inside the cell. The specific EMC proteases that are discussed include cathepsins, bacterial collagenases, matrix metalloproteinases, meprins, serine proteases, and elastases. The volume also discusses the domains responsible for specific biochemical characteristics of the proteases and the physical interactions that occur when the protease interacts with substrate. The topics covered in this volume provide an important context for understanding the role that matrix-degrading proteases play in normal tissue remodeling and in diseases such as cancer and lung disease.

This volume provides new advances regarding the involvement of MMPs in various diseases associated with inflammatory processes. Moreover, the recent development of selective and non selective inhibitors of MMPs give new insights in the relationship between activation of inflammatory cells and tissue remodelling and advise new therapeutics possibilities to the treatment of inflammatory disease. The volume has an international authorship and is written by leading experts in the field.

New updated edition first published with Cambridge University Press. This new edition includes 29 chapters on topics as diverse as pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, vascular haemodynamics, haemostasis, thrombophilia and post-amputation pain syndromes.

This landmark volume discusses the characteristics and impact of the remodeling process on airway function and clinical disease expression within the airway in asthma, covering pharmacological therapies and possible future targets relevant to regulating the remodeling process. Emphasizes the importance of treating underlying airway inflammation and the relevance of structural alterations to the airway wall, including glandular increases, enhanced collagen deposition within the submucosa, increased vasculature, smooth hypertrophy, and hyperplasias! Tracing the development and maintenance of bronchial hyperresponsiveness, decline in lung function, and loss of reversibility evident in chronic asthma, Airway Remodelingdescribes the contribution of inflammatory cells in the development of airway structural changes examines how pharmaceutical agents act and whether existing treatments modify or prevent remodeling in chronically inflamed asthmatic airways considers whether neural pathways initiate as well as contribute to the airway inflammatory cascade that leads to remodeling reviews the action of cytokines and growth factors on ASM signaling outlines novel approaches to regulating smooth muscle growth clarifies whether permanent ventilatory incapacity in asthma is caused by the uncoupling of the airway and the role of the lung parenchyma details high-resolution computerized tomography scan to measure the internal size of the airway at baseline, during challenge, or after bronchodilatation and more!Improving lung function and quality of life by reducing the need for emergency care, hospital admissions, and systemic steroid administration, Airway Remodeling is a superb reference for pulmonologists and respiratory system specialists; physiologists; pneumologists; allergists; pharmacologists; molecular, cellular, and lung biologists; and graduate and medical school students in these disciplines.

Outstanding scientific advances over the last decades unceasingly reveal real complexity of wound-healing process, astonishing in its staged progression, as life is unfolding itself. This natural course of tissue repair seems to bear thousands of overlapping molecular and macroscopic processes that nowadays only start to unfold to our knowledge. The present volume collecting recent scientific references proposes to readers a two-folded audacious goal. First, an updated design of intimate cellular mechanisms is entailed in tissue regeneration that emanates from the first section of the book. Next, a multidisciplinary therapeutic perspective that focuses on macroscopic healing throughout the second part of this work adds clinically integrated observation. Practical diagnostic and treatment information is appended in each chapter that may equally help experienced clinicians or dedicated students and researchers in broadening essential breaking points of their work. It is the wish of all multidisciplinary experts who gather prominent author's panel of this volume to incorporate latest medical reports and compel limits of current understanding for better tissue regeneration, limb salvage, and improved quality of life of our patients.

The tetracyclines have an illustrious history as therapeutic agents which dates back over half a century. Initially discovered as an antibiotic in 1947, the four ringed molecule has captured the fancy of chemists and biologists over the ensuing decades. Of further interest, as described in the chapter by George Armelagos, tetracyclines were already part of earlier cultures, 1500-1700 years ago, as revealed in traces of drug found in Sudanese Nubian mummies. The diversity of chapters which this book presents to the reader should illus trate the many disciplines which have examined and seen benefits from these fascinating natural molecules. From antibacterial to anti-inflammatory to anti autoimmunity to gene regulation, tetracyclines have been modified and redesigned for various novel properties. Some have called this molecule a biol ogist's dream because of its versatility, but others have seen it as a chemist's nightmare because of the synthetic chemistry challenges and "chameleon-like" properties (see the chapter by S. Schneider).

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are members of an enzyme family and are critical for maintaining tissue allostasis. MMPs can catalyze normal turnover of the extracellular matrix (ECM) together with other metalloproteinases such as ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase) and ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif) families. MMP activity is also regulated by a group of endogenous proteins called tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). All these proteins have a pivotal role involving ECM remodelling in normal physiological processes such as wound healing, embryogenesis, angiogenesis, bone remodelling, immunity, and the female reproductive cycle. An imbalance in the expression or activity of MMPs can also have important consequences in diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic leg ulcers, and multiple sclerosis. In recent years, MMPs have been found to play an important role in the field of precision medicine, as they may serve as biomarkers that may predict an individual's disease predisposition, state, or progression. MMPs are also thought to be a sensible target for molecular therapy. The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the most recent findings in this field that may have an impact in healthcare systems.

This text book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Written by a group of international experts in the field and the result of over ten years of collaboration, it allows students and readers to gain to gain a detailed understanding of scar and wound treatment – a topic still dispersed among various disciplines. The content is divided into three parts for easy reference. The first part focuses on the fundamentals of scar management, including assessment and evaluation procedures, classification, tools for accurate measurement of all scar-related elements (volume density, color, vascularization), descriptions of the different evaluation scales. It also features chapters on the best practices in electronic-file storage for clinical reevaluation and telemedicine procedures for safe remote evaluation. The second section offers a comprehensive review of treatment and evidence-based technologies, presenting a consensus of the various available guidelines (silicone, surgery, chemical injections, mechanical tools for scar stabilization, lasers). The third part evaluates the full range of emerging technologies offered to physicians as alternative or complementary solutions for wound healing (mechanical, chemical, anti-proliferation). Textbook on Scar Management will appeal to trainees, fellows, residents and physicians dealing with scar management in plastic surgery, dermatology, surgery and oncology, as well as to nurses and general practitioners

Presents comprehensive up-to-date discussions of both clinical and basic science aspects of wound healing. This text enables the reader to obtain information from several different scientific disciplines and clinical specialities in one place.