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Reviews
This collection of up-to-date reviews on immune system defense is volume 86 in the Chemical Immunology and Allergy series that was begun in 1939 as Progress in Allergy. For many years the only English language review of international advances in immunology, this well-established series provides thorough reviews of individual topics useful for both researchers and clinicians.
Epithelial cells constitute an ancient and highly-conserved defense system evolved by multicellular organisms to combat microbial attack. As a primary element of innate immunity, the epithelium presents not only a physical barrier against penetration by bacteria and viruses but marshals an impressive array of chemical and biological weapons. The editors of this volume have brought together a collection of reviews focusing on three important areas in epithelial defense: The production of antimicrobial peptides, the mechanism of toll-like receptor signaling and the role of γδ T cells in immunosurveillance and the link between innate and adaptive immunity.
Peptides such as the defensins afford a rapid and robust response to microbial invasion and are discussed here along with a number of other antimicrobial peptides in organisms as diverse as fruit flies and humans. Dermatologists will be interested in reading the article on antimicrobial peptides in human skin and their relation to the pathophysiology of skin diseases. Clinical aspects of defensin function are elucidated in Crohn's disease and inflammatory bowel syndrome. Pulmonary disease specialists will find a comprehensive discussion of the function of antimicrobial peptides in the lung and how their activity affects inflammation, angiogenesis and cell function.
The co-evolution of humans and microbes has been a constant battle of modification and adaptation, excellently described in the review of bacterial evasion of innate epithelial defenses. This catalog of bacterial strategies sets the stage for the next set of articles that describe the role of the toll-like receptors in the immune response. These molecular antennas detect bacterial cell wall components, DNA, RNA and other microbial products and generate signals that turn on immune system genes. The toll-like receptors are a critical part of the innate immune system, but recent work on dendritic cells, which is described in this section, demonstrates their importance as a link with T cells and adaptive immunity.
In the final set of reviews, the link between innate and adaptive immunity is further investigated through a discussion of the immunoregulatory role of the γδ T cells. Advances in current technology have allowed researchers to study specific subsets of immune cells on a molecular level, and the results, which are well-described in these two reviews, have produced a highly detailed picture of how γδ T cells fine-tune their responses against infection and malignancy. Although a relatively small population compared to the αβ T cells, the γδ T cells play a very important part in immunosurveillance and resistance to tumors and bacterial infection. As the authors point out, there is growing evidence that these cells also have powerful immunomodulatory properties in maintaining epithelial integrity and providing a signaling pathway between the innate and adaptive immune responses.
In conclusion, one has only to read the impressive titles of the reviews included in this volume to recognize the importance and relevance of this collection. Researchers in all areas of immunology as well as clinicians and students will profit from the up-to-date studies presented here.
G.R. Hellermann, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa FL (WAO Email Newsletter, December 2005
‚The book is to be considered a fundamental tool not only for immunologists, dermatologists, microbiologists, plastic surgeons, and infectious disease specialists but also for all those scientists and students of chemistry and medicine interested to learn more and have up-to-date insights on all the mechanisms of epithelial defense system.'
Journal of Applied Cosmetology
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Cellular and molecular mechanisms highlighted by experts in the field
Epithelial defense against infectious agents relies on the recognition of microbial products by pattern recognition receptors and the local production of antimicrobial peptides. This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of the basic characteristics and clinical relevance of antimicrobial peptides, with special emphasis on their role in skin, intestinal and lung inflammation. The evolutionary significance of antimicrobial peptides is highlighted by an in-depth analysis of their structure, activity and gene regulation in Drosophila melanogaster. Toll-like receptors are an important class of pattern recognition receptors, whose roles in recognizing bacterial molecular patterns and in the intracellular signalling pathways involved in the differentiation and function of dendritic cells are discussed. Finally, this book also addresses the role of intraepithelial lympho cytes in epithelial defense, notably of gammadelta T cells which form a link between innate and adaptive immune responses.
The combined analysis of epithelial and lymphoid cells and effector mechanisms sheds new light on the epithelial defense system in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Immunologists, dermatologists, microbiologists, and infectious disease specialists will greatly benefit from the wealth of new findings presented by leading investigators.
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