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Preface
The splendid reception of the first and second editions of this book convinced both the authors and the publisher to prepare a third edition.
The 13 years since this dictionary first appeared have witnessed an exponential increase in immunological information emanating
from a plethora of journals devoted to the subject. The Journal of Immunology is published twice monthly in an effort to accommodate an
ever-increasing demand for immunological information among researchers that spans all fields of biomedicine. Besides the unprecedented
advances in knowledge of cell receptors and signal transduction pathways, an avalanche of new information has been gleaned from contemporary
research on immunoregulatory cytokines such as IL17 and chemokines and their receptors, with special reference to their structures
and functions.
The present edition has not only been thoroughly updated but also contains multiple new entries covering immunopharmacology, newly
described interleukins, comparative immunology, immunity to infectious diseases, and expansion of definitions in all of the immunological
subspecialties. Thus, the reader is provided in a single volume information that would otherwise require an entire library of books on
immunology to decipher. Some definitions are brief, others are more extensive; all are concise and provide thorough understandings of
basic immunological concepts that often intersect the purview of other basic and clinical scientific disciplines. This book is designed to
provide the most up-to-date and thorough vocabulary of immunological terms available in the complex science of immunology. It contains
approximately 1200 illustrations that depict essentially every concept of importance in understanding the subject of immunology. From the
beginning, immunologists developed and maintained a unique nomenclature that has often mystified and even baffled colleagues in other
fields, causing them to liken immunology to a “black box.” This book is designed to offer immunologists and nonimmunologists alike,
including students, researchers, practitioners, and basic biomedical scientists, a resource for information about many terms encountered in
contemporary immunological literature.
Simple illustrations clarify the explanations and enhance the terms and concepts described. A host of new illustrations of interleukins,
cellular adhesion molecules, and other concepts is presented in a manner that facilitates better understanding of their roles in intercellular
and immune reactions. Illustrated definitions that are pertinent to all of the immunological subspecialties such as transplantation, autoimmunity,
immunophysiology, immunopathology, antigen presentation, and T cell and B cell receptors, to name a few, may be found in this
dictionary. Individuals who need ready access to concise definitions and visual images of immunological concepts will want this book to
be readily available on their bookshelves. No other book provides in one place the breadth or detail of illustrated immunological concepts
as may be found in this third edition of the Illustrated Dictionary of Immunology. The subject matter ranges from molecular structures of
recently characterized receptors and cytokines to major histocompatibility complex molecules, immunoglobulins, comparative immunology,
and immunopathology, to name a few of the categories of information included.
Some of the diagrams illustrate basic concepts; others are designed for specialists interested in more detailed treatments of the subject
matter of immunology. The eclectic science of immunology intersects essentially all basic biomedical and clinical sciences. If immunology
becomes meaningful and demystified to readers, the effort in preparing a third edition of this book will have been well spent.