Medicinal science, relationship with

In summary, microbiology applied to steroid chemistry has resulted in major contributions to technology, medicine, and science. Murray and Peterson, and Perlman and Fried laid the basis for the efficient application of microbiology to the synthesis of antiinflammatory steroids. The renewed interest in the field which they provoked led then to the one finding which was directly implicated in an improvement of therapy, namely, the application of microbial 1-dehydrc enation to the preparation of synthetic adrenocorticoid substances in our laboratory. Studies of mechanism which followed have clarified certain aspects of the stereochemistry and mechanism of microbial transformations and have established relationships with the larger corpus of knowledge of enzymatic chemistry. 

The relationship between medicine and biochemistry has important imphcations for the former. As long as medical treatment is firmly grounded in a knowledge of biochemistry and other basic sciences, the practice of medicine will have a rational basis that can be adapted to accommodate new knowledge. This contrasts with unorthodox health cults and at least some alternative medicine practices, which are often founded on httle more than myth and wishftil thinking and generally lack any intellectual basis. 

One major prerequisite for the maintenance of health is that there be optimal dietary intake of a number of chemicals the chief of these are vitamins, certain amino acids, certain fatty acids, various minerals, and water. Because much of the subject matter of both biochemistry and nutrition is concerned with the smdy of various aspects of these chemicals, there is a close relationship between these two sciences. Moreover, more emphasis is being placed on systematic attempts to maintain health and forestall disease, ie, on preventive medicine. Thus, nutritional approaches to—for example—the prevention of atherosclerosis and cancer are receiving increased emphasis. Understanding nutrition depends to a great extent on a knowledge of biochemistry. 

Figure 2.37 Relationship between the biological interactiveness and the critical surface tension of a biomaterial. Reprinted, by permission, from J. M. Schakenraad, Cells Their Surfaces and Interactions with Materials, in Biomaterials Science An Introduction to Materials in Medicine, B. D. Ratner, A. S. Hoffman, F. J. Schoen, and J. E. Lemons, p. 146. Copyright 1996 by Academic Press.

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