Year: 2009
Type: book-review
Abstract: Karger's 'Progress in Allergy' now available in its 14th volume, is becoming of ever increasing importance to all interested in allergy and immunology.As Byron H. Waksman puts it in the Introduction, 'Any one volume can cover at best a few of the currently active fields of immunology.' Though this implies a certain degree of diversity of the topics reviewed, the editors are always successful at putting to gether articles which are related to each other.In the present volume, the majori ty of the six articles are dealing with problems of antibody structure and antibody formation.Bernier summarizes the progress, made during the past decade, in our understanding of the structure of antibodies and of the relationship between the chemistry and the biological function of the antibodies.The elucidation of the amino acid sequences of paraproteins and the discovery of antibody-active mye loma proteins opened the way towards the understanding of antibody variability and antibody-active sites.Scharff and Laskov review the studies on the molecular events in the synthesis and assembly of immunoglobulins which establish that the synthesis of H and L chains is based upon mechanisms not different from those involved in the synthesis of other proteins.Schwartz, Rydf.r and G ottlieb, in their article on 'Macrophages and antibody synthesis', provide a critical and wellbalanced survey of a most controversial field of immunology.By demonstrating that macrophages may participate in immune responses in three different ways, they stake out the areas of further research.An area of great importance is covered by Makela and Cross in their contribution on 'The diversity and specializa tion of immunocytcs'.Not only do we not know yet whether Burnet's clonal selection theory holds true in all details or whether the immuno-competent cell of the unimmunized animal has some pluripotentiality which is eliminated from its progeny during immunization, but also the precise genetic events leading to anti body variability and the restricted state in the antibody-producing cell are unknown.Concentrating on the antibody-forming cell line, the authors discuss the genetic basis of the development of restricted immunocytcs and propose a hypoth esis which is compatible with the experimental data.T aub reviews the biological effects of heterologous antilymphocyte serum (ALS).Since ALS proved to be the most potent and relatively safe inhibitor of cell-mediated transplantation immuni ty, this article will meet with high clinical interest.Berrens' account of the aller gens of the house dust continues a tradition of this scries to review one problem of 'atopic allergy'.There is no doubt that volume 14 of this series is a reliable guide to recent work on a variety of important topics of immunology as were the preceding volumes.F. H ahn, Freiburg i. Hr.L. H ayflick (ed.):The Mycoplasmatales and the 1,-Phase of Bacteria.Appleton-
DOI: 10.1159/000230831
Authors: B. Csaba, Maria Went, S. Yamamoto, M.W. Greaves, R. Medenica, K. Hatam, V. Hatam, J.-P. Girard, R. Junet, Maria Luisa Villa, E. Clerici, I. Schechter, A.S. Wiener, W.W. Socha, E.B. Gordon, J. Moor-Jankowski, C.J. Abeyounis, F. Milgrom, W.B. Wacker, J.J. Miller, III, S.E. Holm, J. Holmgren, J. Ahlmén, S.D. Douglas, J.S. Louie, L.S. Goldberg, Å. Larsson, P. Perlmann, J. Holmgren, S. Hammarström, S.E. Holm, J. Ahlmén, P.O. Attman, U. Jodal, S. Ben-Efraim, Lilly Raveh, Z. Spirer, P. Liacopoulos, J. Pryjma, W. Ptak, Z. Szybiński, Krystyna Sarnowicz, R.E. Cone, J.D. Wilson, B.L. Dinh, A. Brassard, V.N. Katiyar, S.R. Smith, J. Petillo, A. Hwang
Language: English
Topic: T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4241556739