The Effects of Immune Cells and Inflammation On Smooth Muscle and Enteric Nerves

William J. Snape, Jr., M.D., is Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology in the Department of Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Snape received his B.A. degree from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey in 1965 and his M.D. degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1969. He took his internal medicine residency training at the Bronx Municipal Medical Center and a post-doctoral fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Snape was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1982. He assumed his present position in 1982. Dr. Snape is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, American College of Gastroenterology, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Snape has been the recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis. He has published more than 150 papers on the pathophysiologic controls of gastrointestinal smooth muscle. His current research interests relate to the effect of inflammation on smooth muscle contractility. Stephen M. Collins, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P. (U.K.), F.R.C.P. (C) obtained his medical degree at University College, London and at Westminster Hospital Medical School in London, England in 1971. He obtained postgraduate clinical training in England and at McMaster University in Canada where he subspecialized in gastroenterology. He obtained research training at the Digestive Diseases Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland between 1978 and 1981. His research interests originated in the study of the control of gastrointestinal motility and the effect of gastrointestinal hormones. He obtained training in cell biology at NIH and applied this to develop a preparation of single smooth muscle cells to study excitation-contraction coupling in gut muscle. Since becoming the Director of Intestinal Diseases Research Unit at McMaster, he has become interested in the ability of cells of the immune system to alter structure and function in smooth muscle and enteric nerves. The Intestinal Disease Research Unit, of which Dr. Collins is the Director, adopts an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to study the response of the gastrointestinal tract injury in general, and to inflammatory processes in particular; the work presented in this volume by Dr. Collins and some of his colleagues from McMaster reflects this research philosophy. Dr. Collins is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, England, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and is a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University.