IMMUNOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE
1970; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/b978-0-08-017481-5.50012-2
Autores Tópico(s)Animal testing and alternatives
ResumoThis chapter focuses on immunological surveillance. The concept of immunological surveillance is a broad one but it is a part of the still broader concept of internal homeostasis within the mammalian body. It is not a specifically stated hypothesis susceptible to a precise experimental test; it is rather a tentative generalization that could give some logical unity to a wide range of observable phenomena. In essence, immunological surveillance is the concept that a major function of the immunological mechanisms in mammals is to recognize and eliminate foreign patterns arising in body by somatic mutation or some equivalent process. From the point of view of survival, this is important primarily as providing a means by which the appearance of malignant disease may be effectively cut short. Surveillance, if it exists, is a negative factor in the natural history of human cancer. Malignant disease is initiated by factors intrinsic to individual cells and its emergence will depend on a variety of factors in the micro-environment as well as in the cells of the proliferating clone. Immunological effects will be superimposed upon others and all that we can predict is that under such and such immunological circumstances, cancer will be more or less frequent than it would otherwise be.
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