Methods in Membrane Biology

Many of the methods now in general use in membrane biology, and not already discussed in satisfactory detail elsewhere, have been covered in the eight previously published volumes of this series. Much of this ninth volume is occupied by one authoritative chapter, an unusually thorough and critical review of a relatively new and highly specialized technology that has gained rapid acceptance: immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. These are powerful experimental tools applicable in fields much broader than membrane research and employing methods drawn from widely diverse disciplines such as organic chemistry, protein chemistry, immunology, and fluorescence and electron microscopy. The temptation to use these super- ficially, and deceptively, simple but fundamentally complex methods un- critically is almost overwhelming. The chapter by de Petris, a pioneer in the field, is as necessary as it is rigorous, and it should long be the standard in this area of research. The second chapter in this volume is a more specialized review by Matus of the procedures for the preparation and characterization of the highly differentiated junctional regions of brain plasma membranes. These methods are central to the rapidly growing field of neurobiochemistry- membrane biochemistry at perhaps its most intricate.