Marks' Essential Medical Biochemistry is based on the second edition of Marks' Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach. It has been streamlined to focus primarily on only the most essential biochemical concepts important to medical students. If further detail is needed, the larger 'parent' book can be consulted.
Medical biochemistry has often been the least appreciated course taken by medical students during their four years of training. Many students fail to understand how the biochemistry they are learning will be applicable to their clinical years. Too often, in order to make it through the course, students fall into the trap of rote memorization instead of understanding the key biochemical concepts. This is unfortunate, as medical biochemistry provides a molecular basis and scaffold upon which all future courses in medical school are built. Biochemistry provides the foundation upon which disease can be understood at the molecular level.
Biochemistry provides the tools upon which new drug treatments and therapies are based. It is very difficult to understand today's practice of medicine without comprehending the basic principles of biochemistry.
As the student proceeds through the text two important objectives will be emphasized: an understanding of protein structure and function, and an understanding of the metabolic basis of disease. In order to accomplish this, the student will learn how large molecules are synthesized and used (DNA, RNA, and proteins), and how energy is generated, stored, and retrieved (metabolism). Once these basic concepts are understood, it will be straightforward to understand how alterations in the basic processes can lead to a disease state.
Inherited disease is caused by alterations in a person's DNA, which leads to a variant protein being synthesized. The metabolic pathway which depends upon the activity of that protein is then altered, which leads to the disease state. Understanding the consequences of a block in a metabolic pathway (or in signaling or regulating a pathway) will enable the student to better understand the signs and symptoms of a specific disease. Type I diabetes, for example, is caused by a lack of synthesized insulin, but how do the myriad of symptoms which accompany this type of diabetes come about? Understanding how insulin affects, and regulates, normal metabolic pathways will enable the student to figure out its effects, and not just memorize them from a list.
This text presents patient cases to the students as the biochemistry is being discussed. This strengthens the link between biochemistry and medicine, and allows the student to learn about this interaction as the biochemistry is presented. As more biochemistry is learned, patients reappear, and more complicated symptoms and treatments are discussed. In this manner, the medical side of biochemistry is reinforced as the book progresses. The intended purpose for using descriptive names given to patients in this textbook was to allow the reader to more easily identify the specific disease process discussed for each patient as their case histories initially unfolded. It was also hoped that these names would serve as a mnemonic, to assist the student in connecting what they had learned earlier about specific patients with new information about those patients who reappeared in later chapters with additional biochemically-related problems. It was not the intent of the authors or the publishers that the use of these names would in any way make light of the health problems faced by the patients presented here.
Contents
FUEL METABOLISM
FUEL METABOLISM
- An Overview of Fuel Metabolism
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BIOCHEMISTRY
- Water, Acids, Bases, and Buffers
- Structures of the Major Compounds of the Body
- Amino Acids in Proteins
- Structure-Function Relationships in Proteins
- Enzymes as Catalysts
- Regulation of Enzymes
- Cell Structure and Signaling by Chemical Messengers
GENE EXPRESSION AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
- Structure of the Nucleic Acids
- Synthesis of DNA
- Transcription: Synthesis of RNA
- Translation: Synthesis of Proteins
- Regulation of Gene Expression
- Use of Recombinant DNA Techniques in Medicine
OXIDATIVE METABOLISM AND THE GENERATION OF ATP
- Cellular Bioenergetics: ATP and O2
- Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle
- Oxidative Phosphorylation, Mitochondrial Function, and Oxygen Radicals
- Generation of ATP from Glucose: Glycolysis
- Oxidation of Fatty Acids and Ketone Bodies
CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM
- Basic Concepts in the Regulation of Fuel Metabolism by Insulin, Glucagons and Other Hormones
- Digestion, Absorption, and Transport of Carbohydrates
- Formation and Degradation of Glycogen
- Pathways of Sugar Metabolism: Pentose Phosphate Pathway, Fructose and Galactose Metabolism
- Synthesis of Glycosides, Lactose, Glycoproteins, and Glycolipids
- Gluconeogenesis and Maintenance of Blood Glucose Levels
LIPID METABOLISM
- Digestion and Transport of Dietary Lipids
- Synthesis of Fatty Acids, Triacylglycerols, and the Major Membrane Lipids
- Cholesterol Absorption, Synthesis, Metabolism and Fate
- Integration of Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism
NITROGEN METABOLISM
- Protein Digestion and Amino Acid Absorption
- Fate of Amino Acid Nitrogen: Urea Cycle
- Synthesis and Degradation of Amino Acids
- Tetrahydrofolate, Vitamin B12, and S-Adenosylmethionine
- Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism
- Intertissue Relationships in the Metabolism of Amino Acids
Product Details
- Paperback: 584 pages
- Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1 edition (March 23, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0781793408
- ISBN-13: 978-0781793407
- Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
List Price: $59.95