Main description:

When I entered the field of allergy in the early 1970s, the standard textbook was a few hundred pages, and the specialty was so compact that texts were often authored entirely by a single individual and were never larger than one volume. Compare this with Allergy Frontiers: Epigenetics, Allergens, and Risk Factors, the present s- volume text with well over 150 contributors from throughout the world. This book captures the explosive growth of our specialty since the single-author textbooks referred to above. The unprecedented format of this work lies in its meticulous attention to detail yet comprehensive scope. For example, great detail is seen in manuscripts dealing with topics such as "Exosomes, naturally occurring minimal antigen presenting units" and "Neuropeptide S receptor 1 (NPSR1), an asthma susceptibility gene." The scope is exemplified by the unique approach to disease entities normally dealt with in a single chapter in most texts. For example, anaphylaxis, a topic u- ally confined to one chapter in most textbooks, is given five chapters in Allergy Frontiers. This approach allows the text to employ multiple contributors for a single topic, giving the reader the advantage of being introduced to more than one vi- point regarding a single disease.

Contents:

Classification and Pathomechanisms.- Basic Aspects of Allergy and Hypersensitivity Reactions.- Pathogen Recognition and New Insights into Innate Immunity.- New Nomenclature and Clinical Aspects of Allergic Diseases.- IgE and the High-Affinity Receptor, Fc?RI: The IgE-CD23 Interaction.- Superantigens and Allergic Disease.- Immune Complexes: Normal Physiology and Role in Disease.- What Is New About Eosinophil Activation in Asthma and Allergic Disease.- Mast Cell and Basophils: Interaction with IgE and Responses to Toll like Receptor Activators.- T Cells in Allergic Disease.- Role of NKT Cells in the Regulation of Ongoing Type 2 Immune Response.- CD8+ T Cells Play a Key Role in the Development of Allergic Lung Inflammation.- Neutrophils and Their Mediators in Asthma and Allergic Disease.- Dendritic Cells, Macrophages and Monocytes in Allergic Disease.- Function of Dendritic Cell Subsets in Allergic Disease.- Epithelial Cell-Mesenchymal Interaction, Epithelial-Leukocyte Interaction and Epithelial Immune-Response Genes in Allergic Disease.- Role of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Cascade in Airway Epithelial Regulation of Mucus Production.- Epithelial Cell Innate Responses to Rhinovirus Infection.- The Role of Platelets in Allergy.- Expression and Function of Siglec-8 in Human Eosinophils, Basophils, and Mast Cells.- Effects of Nitric Oxide on Mast Cells: Production, Functions, and Mechanisms of Action.- Histamine and Its Receptors.- Adenosine: Its Contribution to Our Understanding in Airway Inflammation.- Airway Smooth Muscle Dysfunction in Asthma.- Genetic Variation in Cytokines, Asthma, and Atopy: The Role of IL-4/IL-13 Pathway Polymorphisms.- Allergy and the Bone Marrow: Transmigration Pathways of Hemopoietic Progenitor Cells from the Bone Marrow.- Hemopoietic Mechanisms in Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma.- Allergy and the Nervous System.- Neuroanatomy of the Airways.- Biology of Neurotrophins, Neuropeptides, and Muscarinic Receptors in Asthma.- Neural Regulation of the Immune Response.- Neuroregulation of Mucosal Vasculature.- Allergy and Mucosal Immunology.- Mucosal Immunity: from Allergy to Coeliac Disease.- Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue and Dynamics of Lymphoid Cells in the Five Different Compartments in Allergic Diseases.