Cellular Basis of Immune Modulation

Cellular Basis ofImmune Modulation is the ninth volume in the series Progress in Leukocyte Biology and comprises the proceedings of the nineteenth International Leukocyte Culture Conference. This volume is divided into 13 sections of leukocyte biology, such as "T cell Activation," "Cytotoxic Effector Cells," and "Hemopoiesis and Lymphoid Development." The first three sections include an essay on Sir Peter Medawar, one of the founding fathers of cellular immunology, and a discussion of the basic principles which govern immune responsiveness. While these opening sections contain interesting historical information and some discussion of the fundamentals of cellular immunology, they do not provide enough of an introduction to the remainder of the text for newcomers to immunology. For the reader with a working knowledge of immunology, this volume provides an excellent cross-section of current research in various areas of leukocyte biology. For example, section VII, entitled "Lymphokines, Cytokines, and Their Receptors," contains seven papers which approach this topic in a variety of ways. The first paper, "Regulation of Cytokine Gene Expression," by Paetkau et al., attempts to define the mechanisms by which cytokine messenger RNA levels are regulated in T cells exposed to the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine. Another paper, "Intracellular Activities of Microinjected Cytokines and Lymphokines," by Smith et al., represents a novel attempt to isolate the direct effects of intracellular cytokines by bypassing events at the cell surface receptor, while a third paper, "Structure and Function of Human Receptors for Interleukin-2," by Greene et al., deals specifically with the importance of events at cell surface receptors and the regulation of IL-2 receptor gene expression. Other sections of the book contain equally diverse collections of papers (usually seven to ten per section). One of the most comprehensive sections is "Autoimmunity and Immunodeficiency," which includes papers such as "Towards an Understanding of Lupus" by Steinberg et al. "Treatment of Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis With an Antibody to T Cell Receptor fi Chain" by Zamvil et al., and "HLA-DR and HLA-DQ alleles Associated with Pemphigus Vulgaris," by Sinha et al. In general, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the field of leukocyte biology. The book will definitely be of greatest value to immunologists and molecular biologists wishing to keep abreast of recent developments in the field. It will also be of considerable use to those exploring a specific area of leukocyte biology, as each section contains enough diverse, well-referenced papers to form the basis for a wider review of the literature.