This textbook is an extensive work thoroughly elucidating basic and applied (clinical) aspects of modern immunology.
Incredible progress is being made in immunology, one of the major medical-biological disciplines. This progress is due to the specific nature of the immune processes involved in virtually all physiological and pathological events in genes, molecules, cells, tissues, and organs of the human organism. The complexity of immunological processes is kept in balance by an "immunological orchestra" which maintains and defends the life of multicellular organisms inhabiting the Earth. In human beings polymorphism of immune response genes, including the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), is the highest in comparison to other biological species. This polymorphism, in particular, provided selective advantages in Homo sapiens evolution and increased chances for survival and protection against both external (infections and allergens) and internal (mutations, malignant transformation and other genetic modifications) threats. Therefore the developments in modern immunology are of great importance for the progress of many (if not all) areas of medicine and biology.
This textbook submits basic ideas in immunology and allergology, immune diagnostics, immune prophylaxis and immune therapy. Clinicians have rapidly understood the importance of experimental research and have begun to use immunological methods for diagnostics and treatment of various diseases. Hence this textbook presents a significant selection of factual material useful and necessary for students and post-graduates as well as for teachers, lecturers, practical physicians and scientific researchers engaged in various fields of medicine and biology. It contains texts and illustrations (figures, schemes, tables, etc.) and has been designed for use in immunology courses at medical schools. The textbook structure is constituted in a way that each part leads the reader to a formulated question, searches for an answer, finds and verifies it. Such structure helps to master the material properly.