Genetic control of immune responsiveness : relationship to disease susceptibility / edited by Hugh O. McDevitt and Maurice Landy.

Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Genetic control of immune responsiveness : relationship to disease susceptibility / edited by Hugh O. McDevitt and Maurice Landy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ¡ContinucJ from front frapj A further notable development dealt with by this conference is the recoijnition that lympho¬ cytes express antigenic configurations respon¬ sible for the in vitro mixed lymphocyte culture reaction which are distinct from all those thus far defined serologically. The genes for the anti¬ gens inducing the mixed lymphocyte reaction, the major histocompatibility antigens, and im¬ mune response genes thus comprise a closely linked series controlling several important cell surface recognition phenomena. The complex array of genes (including H-2- linked genes) which affect susceptibility to mu¬ rine viral leukemogenesis were explored in de¬ tail. Finally, the emerging associations between histocompatibility antigens and several human diseases were reviewed in the light of the pre¬ ceding discussions. While continuing a distinc¬ tive style of scientific communication, this final Brook Lodge Immunology Conference differed markedly from its four predecessors: they had dealt with assessment of major bodies of estab¬ lished information, whereas this conference ad¬ ditionally brought together a large amount of new, unpublished data on several exciting recent developments. The implications of these dis¬ coveries for antigenic recognition and the gen¬ eration of diversity (possibly the two most chal¬ lenging issues in immunology), and the prospect of finally perceiving a rational basis for individ¬ ual susceptibility to an extensive spectrum of disease states, notably viral oncogenesis and autoimmune disorders, were explored in con¬ siderable depth. In addition, the principles of population genetics and the evolution of linked loci were applied to the experimental data in a lucid and highly informative manner. As the scientific product of this conference, this latest volume in the PERSPECTIVES IN IMMUNOLOGY series reflects the forefront of our knowledge of the genes controlling the spec¬ ificity and regulation of the immune response. These momentous developments in immunol¬ ogy and genetics are, in a way, analogous to the ushering in of the era of molecular biology by the microbial geneticists in the 1950's. This new understanding will have much to tell us about the underlying character of host suscep¬ tibility to various disease states; by uniting a great body of information under a single con¬ ceptual framework, begin to dispel the frustra¬ tion of attempting to cope with what had so long been hopelessly complex.