Humana Immunotoxicity, Immune Dysfunction, and Chronic Disease (Molecular and Integrative Toxicology)

This book approaches the environment-immune-disease triad from the standpoint of the disease. Its coverage of immune dysfunction-based chronic diseases and conditions describes environmental risk factors, immune dysfunctions and overall health consequences. Review “The format of each chapter, starting with an abstract and key points on the first page followed by the body of the text, facilitates isolated reading of each chapter without the requirement for prior knowledge of the rest of the book … . The editors and contributors have created an interesting textbook which, as well as informing the immunotoxicologist, would be at home in the library of a range of institutes investigating any of the many diseases covered.” (Halima Moncrieffe, Immunology News, February, 2013) From the Back Cover Immunotoxicity, Immune Dysfunction, and Chronic Disease is among the first books to illustrate the linkage between environmental risk factors ( e.g., chemicals, drugs, diet, lifestyles), environmentally-induced immune dysfunction and the full range of resulting chronic diseases and conditions. There is a detailed discussion of specific immune-based chronic diseases and conditions that emerge in children and adults and affect different physiological systems. The book integrates a consideration of risk factors and specific immunotoxic alterations with disease outcomes. A significant number of diseases and conditions are discussed, such as systemic allergic diseases affecting the lung, skin and gastrointestinal tract, systemic autoimmune diseases (type 1 diabetes,multiple sclerosis and lupus) and chronic conditions that are not traditionally associated with chemically-mediated immunomodulation (depression, frailty, and atherosclerosis). Inflammatory dysregulation is a common thread that connects many of the diseases and conditions discussed in this book and provides a central focus.  Individual chapters are organized by disease with the addition of chapters that provide integrative information on: 1) patterns of disease comorbidities and 2) the safety testing of chemicals and drugs to reduce the risk of immune dysfunction.  Each chapter contains a summary of key points as well as recommendations when appropriate. The book stresses the benefits of identifying the environmental risk factors of immune-mediated chronic disease and the potential to reduce the prevalence of these diseases and conditions.  This volume is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians, risk assessors and regulators and students.    About the Author Rodney R. Dietert is Professor of Immunotoxicology at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY whose interests focus on the prevention of chronic diseases via patterns that first emerge in children.  Dietert’s recent books include: Strategies For Protecting Your Child's Immune System (World Scientific, Singapore, Hackensack, NJ, 2010) and Immunotoxicity Testing (as Editor) (Springer, NY, 2010). He previously directed Cornell's Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors and the Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology and served as a Senior Fellow in Cornell’s Center for the Environment.  Dietert recently served on panels for the Institute of Medicine (Agent Orange), the WHO (Immunotoxicology Risk Assessment) and the EPA (Trichloroethylene).    Robert W. Luebke is an immunotoxicologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, NC whose research is focused on the consequences of exposure to environmental chemicals on immune system homeostasis and resistance to infectious disease, and the development of alternative testing methods for high throughput screening of chemicals for immune system toxicity.  He has authored numerous book chapters on immunotoxicology and immunotoxicology methods and served as senior editor of the third edition of Immunotoxicology and Immunopharmacology (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2007). Recen