The next six chapters cover adaptive immunity: antigen presentation, antigen recognition, and cell-mediated and humoral immune responses. The latest developments in the fast-growing area of natural killer cell biology is treated more superficially, perhaps on purpose, because the topic is difficult to comprehend in a textbook of this scope, and the more curious reader must turn to journal articles for the latest information about natural killer receptors and functions. These 18 pages introduce the reader to the cells of the innate immune system, chemokines, cytokines, and complement molecules as well as clinical disorders arising from defects in each of these. The next chapter moves on to a subject fast gaining interest: innate immunity. Anybody who finds the current field incomprehensible should study this chapter it is bound to leave the reader with a full appreciation of modern immunology. The first chapter introduces the immune system, with photographs of cells and organs of the immune system, beautiful drawings, graphs, and tables. The book consists of 12 chapters, which cover almost every topic found in larger classic textbooks. Nothing in this book seems to have been done just for the sake of it, and the precious whole is presented as a handy package. The index is rather comprehensive as well. The book ends with a list of suggested readings (carefully selected except for the reference to the 1993 map of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) which is now updated by the report of the MHC Sequencing Consortium in Nature, 1999 401:921) and three appendices containing 1) a list of known CD molecules, 2) a 24-page glossary, and 3) five clinical cases with questions and answers. Each chapter is summarized in bullet form with accompanying review questions. Even the text is frequently decorated with sections in boldface type to emphasize key concepts so that by just skimming through the pages and reading only those highlighted sections one can get a quick sense of basic immunology in minutes. Abundant diagrams, figures, charts, and tables make it easier to follow the subject.
The plain language, coupled with the unintimidating size of the book, relieves the apprehensive reader at the outset. Today's immunology, at its current level of complexity, could not be put into 232 pages of text in a more comprehensive, yet accessible, way. It will also serve researchers with little training in immunology well. Having already produced a now classic immunology textbook ( 1), Abbas and Lichtman have done another good job in preparing this book primarily for students and others with little or no background in immunology.
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