In Defense of Self How the Immune System Really Works

by Clark, William R.

• ISBN13: 9780195335552
• ISBN10: 0195335554
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

We live in a sea of seething microbial predators, an infinity of invisible and invasive microorganisms capable of setting set up shop inside us and sending us to an early grave. The only thing keeping them out? The immune system. William Clark's In Defense of Self offers a refreshingly accessible tour of the immune system, putting in layman's terms essential information that has been for too long the exclusive province of trained specialists. Clark explains how the immune system works by using powerful genetic, chemical, and cellular weapons to protect us from the vast majority of disease-causing microbes-bacteria, viruses, molds, and parasites. Only those microbes our bodies need to help us digest food and process vitamins are admitted. But this same system can endanger us by rejecting potentially life-saving organ transplants, or by overreacting and turning too much force against foreign invaders, causing serious--occasionally lethal--collateral damage to our tissues and organs. Worse yet, our immune systems may react as if we ourselves are foreign and begin snipping away at otherwise healthy tissues, resulting in autoimmune disease. In Defense of Self covers everything from how antibodies work and the strategies the body uses to distinguish self from not self to the nature of immunological memory, the latest approaches to vaccination, and how the immune system will react should we ever be subjected to a bioterrorist attack. Clark also offers important insights on the vital role that the immune system plays in cancer, AIDS, autoimmunity, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies and asthma, and other diseases. Of special interest to all those suffering from diseases related to the immune system, as well as their families, In Defense of Self lucidly explains a system none of us could live without.

Author Biography

Dr. William Clark is Professor and Chair Emeritus of Immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an internationally recognized authority on the killer T lymphocytes involved in organ transplant rejection and in viral immunity. He has written extensively on topics in science and medicine for the general public.

Table of Contents

How the Immune System Works
What Is an Immune System?	p. 3
Antibodies	p. 15
How Do Antibodies Work?	p. 33
T Cells: The Second Arm of Adaptive Immunity	p. 43
The Immune System in Health and Disease
The Immune Response to Infectious Disease: All-Out War!	p. 61
When the Immune System Is the Problem, Not the Solution: Microbial Immunopathology	p. 79
Vaccines: How They Work, Why They Sometimes Don't, and What We Can Do About It	p. 91
When the Wall Comes Tumbling Down: HIV/AIDS	p. 105
When the Wall Comes Tumbling Down: Primary Immune Deficiency Diseases	p. 127
When the Immune System Is the Problem, Not the Solution: Hypersensitivity and Allergy	p. 145
The Immune System and Cancer	p. 163
Autoimmunity	p. 177
Organ Transplantation	p. 199
First Defense: The Immune System and Bioterrorism	p. 221
Glossary	p. 251
Index	p. 259
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