Effectors of Thermogenesis

One of the most interesting aspects of thermogenesis research is that it quite naturally attracts workers from an extremely wide spectrum of interests, ranging from the mechanism of cellular respiratory control at the molecular level and neuro-hormonal control of energy dissipation both at the cellular level and that of the whole organisms to the mechanism of temperature control during the hibernating cycle and that of cold acclimatation. Thus, the Satellite Symposium on "The Effectors of Thermogenesis" brought together not only physiologists, but also biochemists, pharmacologists, zoologists and clinicians, and provided a forum for the airing of new ideas as well as for the confrontation of different points of view. These are now reproduced in this book in exactly the same form and order in which they were presented at the Symposium, in the hope of providing a bird's-eye view of the various facets of thermogenesis research. A "mini-review", summarizing the current knowledge in each domain, therefore precedes the corresponding papers. The editors are deeply indebted to the contributors of these introductory lectures for so competently selecting from the mass of available information in each field, only the most essential elements. This book is dedicated to Dr. Robert Emrie Smith, a pioneer and path-finder in this field, who organized the first meeting on thermogenesis as a satellite of the XXI International Congress of Physiological Sciences and took an active part in the four subsequent meetings. L. Girardier DEDICATION Dr.