In 1978, Fritz Markwardt edited Fibrinolytics and Antifibrinolytics, vol. 46 of the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology series. Since then tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of the pathophysiology of the fibrinolytic system, of myocardial infarction and of stroke. r am very grateful to the contributors to this new edition of Fibrinolytics and Antifibrinolytics, all outstanding scientists and/or clinicians in their field. They have succeeded in presenting an up-to-date account of basic aspects of the fibrinolytic system, of both older and new thrombolytic agents, and have analyzed in a balanced fashion the results of first to third generation throm- bolytic drugs in clinical trials. The book is arranged in three major sections. The first one deals with the molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology of the plas- minogen-plasmin enzyme system. The progress that has been made in this field since 1978 is staggering. Methods taken from molecular biology have been used successfully for cloning the zymogen plasminogen, the two princi- pal activators and three major inhibitors of the system, many receptors for plasmin( ogen) and its activators, and some modulators of this clot-dissolving system. For many compounds the crystal structure has been uncovered. Numerous regulators of the system, particularly cytokines, growth factors and hormones, have been identified and their action and signal transduction elu- cidated. This section is of particular interest to both basic scientists and phar- macologists.