Atlas of Contemporary Ophthalmic Surgery

This manual contains concise and well-written procedures which would be useful to anyone performing laboratory research on the nervous system. It contains 90 procedures, which are grouped into ten sections. The first section contains dissection procedures. The next six sections concern the establishment of primary cultures of organotypic explant, astrocyte, oligodendrocyte, neuronal, schwann cell, and reaggregate cultures. The last three sections describe methods used to study cells in culture. These include in situ hybridization, immunofluorescence, and in vitro bioassays. Each of the procedure outlines begins with a short introduction, followed by the protocol and then by references. Many of the outlines are written in step form and are accompanied by diagrams of the procedures and/or micrographs of the resulting neural cultures. A major problem with this book is that the reader must possess some laboratory experience in the neurosciences. The volume was intended to be a guide by experts for those with limited experience in the field. Some of the procedures, such as in situ hybridization and the culturing of neural cells, seem easy to follow; however, the dissection procedures did not seem as simple as written in the manual. Since the chapters of this book are written by many authors, their quality varies. Some procedures are easy to follow, while others are lacking in detail. Each chapter, however, does provide references, which should make up for any lack of detail in the individual chapters. This volume would be useful to any investigator in neurobiology as a comprehensive guide to the many procedures being performed in the study of neural cells. As the number of scientists who become interested in the neurosciences increases, so does the demand for manuals or "recipe books." A book such as this serves an important function by providing a collection of up-to-date protocols for scientists to follow and examine.