Replacing elements/changing attributes with 'remote_function'?

Hi,

how could I replace more than just the innerHTML of an element with a
remote function?

The given problem:

I’d like to update table row in a table of the style

...... ...

where not only the contents of the tr change, but the class attribut
as well (e.g. to change the background color into red for alerting).

With the argument :update=>:row1 I could replace the innerHTML,
but not the class attribute.

How would I do this?

regards
Hadmut