The general populations are incidentally exposed to a wide variety of xenobiotics as a
consequence of the pollution of the environment by industrial and agricultural chemicals.
Xenobiotics entering the animal will undergo one or more of the following fate: (a) elimination
unchanged (b) metabolism by enzymes (c) spontaneous chemical transformation and (d) remain
unchanged in the body. The actions of xenobiotics on the body exhibit certain specificity
depending upon the compound's chemical structure and reactivity. Since the processes of
metabolism change these chemical properties ofaxenobiotic bewildering number of reactions
continue to pose new challenges to toxicologists and pharmacologists. It necessitates periodic
and precise revision of the subject. This book contains invited contributions from learned
colleagues that offer an excellent survey of and profound insight into the disposition and
metabolism of a few environmentally and industrially significant xenobiotics. The topics range
from an assessment of drug metabolising enzymes in the liver DNA damage by reactive oxygen
species generated by pesticides role of NO in liver injury hepatotrophicgrowth factor in
liver regeneration extracellular matrix in the liver oncogene expression in liver injury the
hepatocarcinogenesis to oxidative stress and undifferentiated gene expression. Detailed
analysis of the validity of liver function tests has been included. Last Chapter addresses the
problem of apoptosis which plays a key role in the signal transduction system of
xenobiotics-induced liver injury. The reader should appreciate that overall exposure to this
field is expanding at a rapid pace and selections had to be made.
