This book presents current understanding of the importance of modern immunology in the etiopathogenesis of human diseases and explores how this understanding is impacting on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and prophylaxis. As the core of modern immunology, the "danger/injury model" is introduced and addressed throughout the book. Volume I of the book describes the network of damage-associated molecular pattern molecules (DAMPs) and examines the central role of DAMPs in cellular stress responses and associated regulated cell death, the promotion and resolution of inflammation, the activation of innate lymphoid cells and unconventional T cells, the stimulation of adaptive immunity, and tissue repair. The significance of DAMPs in a wide range of human diseases will then be explored in Volume II of the book, with discussion of the implications of injury-induced innate immunity for present and future treatments. This book is written for professionals from all medical and paramedical disciplines who are interested in the introduction of innovative data from immunity and inflammation research into clinical practice. The readership will include practitioners and clinicians such as hematologists, rheumatologists, traumatologists, oncologists, intensive care anesthetists, endocrinologists such as diabetologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, pharmacists, and transplantologists.

 

Part I. The Three Major Paradigms in Modern Immunology

Prologue: The Term "Immunity" over the Course of Time
The Three Major Paradigms in Immunology
Epilogue: What Major Paradigm in Immunology Comes Next?
Part II. The Innate Immune System: an Organ of Perception Determined to Maintain Homeostasis
Prologue: The Guardians of Homeostasis
Innate Immune Recognition Molecules
Epilogue: The Innate Immune System: a Global Player in Health and Disease
Part III. The Whole Family of Mammalian Innate Immune Cells
Prologue: The Whole Body as an Immune System?
Mobile Innate Immune Cells
Sessile Innate Immune Cells
Epilogue: The Whole Body as an Immune Defence System
Part IV. The World of DAMPs. Prologue: About DAMPs, PAMPs and MAMPs
Endogenous DAMPs, Category I: Constitutively Expressed Native Molecules (Cat. I DAMPs)
Endogenous DAMPs, Category II: Constitutively Expressed, Injury-Modified Molecules (Cat. II DAMPs)
Endogenous DAMPs, Category III: Inducible DAMPs (Cat. III DAMPs)
Exogenous DAMPs, Category IV (Cat. IV DAMPs)
Epilogue: The Well-Dosed Work of DAMPs in their Commission to Restore and Maintain Homeostasis
Part V. Cellular Stress Responses and Regulated Cell Death
Prologue: Innate Immune Tools to Defend against Stressful Injury: Success and Failure
Cell-Autonomous (Cell-Intrinsic) Stress Responses
Regulated Cell Death
Epilogue: The Horror of an Injury-Induced Avalanche of DAMPs
Part VI. Innate Immune Effector Responses
Prologue: The Various Facets of Innate Immune Effector Responses
Cellular Inflammatory Responses
Humoral Innate Immune Effector Responses
Regulation of Innate Inflammatory Responses
Epilogue to Part VI
Part VII. Function of Innate Lymphoid Cells and  Unconventional T Cells with Partial Innate Function
Prologue: The "Ready-to-Go" Lymphocytes of the Immune System
Activating and Function of Innate Lymphoid Cells
Activating and Function of Unconventional T Cells
Epilogue: Killer Lymphocytes as Tools for Future Immunotherapeutic Approaches
Part VIII. DAMPs Promoting Adaptive Immunity and Tissue Repair
Prologue: The "Long Arm" of DAMPs in Shaping Adaptive Immune Responses and Tissue Repairing Processes
Antigen Uptake, Processing and Presentation by Dendritic Cells
Antigen in the Presence of DAMPs Induces Immunostimulatory Dendritic Cells to Promote "Destructive" Acquired Immune Responses
Antigen in the Absence of DAMPs Promotes Immunotolerance: the Role of Dendritic Cells and Regulatory T Cells
An Impressive Example of Peripheral Tolerance against Nonself: Tolerance to Commensal Bacterial and Dietary Protein Antigens
Immunometabolism of Dendritic Cells and T Cells
Role of DAMPs in Tissue Regeneration and Repair
Epilogue: DAMPs as Key Players in the Pathogenesis of Many Human Diseases.