Sompayrac - How the Immune System Works

I dedicate this book to my sweetheart, my best friend, and my wife: Vicki Sompayrac.

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Lauren Sompayrac, PhD

This edition first published 2016 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Previous editions 1999, 2003, 2008, 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sompayrac, Lauren, author.
How the immune system works / Lauren Sompayrac. Fifth edition.
p. ; cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-99777-2 (pbk.)
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Immune Systemphysiology. 2. Immune Systemanatomy & histology.
3. Immune Systemphysiopathology. 4. Immunityphysiology. QW 504]
QR181
616.079dc23

2015015315

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Cover image and figure on page 2 used with permission from Lennart Nilsson/TT.

I would like to thank the following people, whose critical comments on earlier editions were most helpful: Drs. Mark Dubin, Linda Clayton, Dan Tenen, Jim Cook, Tom Mitchell, Lanny Rosenwasser, and Eric Martz. Thanks also go to Diane Lorenz, who illustrated the first and second editions, and whose wonderful artwork still can be found in this book. Finally, I wish to thank Vicki Sompayrac, whose wise suggestions helped make this book more readable, and whose editing was invaluable in preparing the final manuscript.

I wrote How the Immune System Works because I couldn't find a book that would give my students an overall view of the immune system. Sure, there are as many good, thick textbooks as a person might have money to buy, but these are crammed with every possible detail. There are also lots of review books that are great if you want a summary of what you've already learned but they won't teach you immunology. What was missing was a short book that tells, in simple language, how the immune system fits together a book that presents the big picture of the immune system, without the jargon and the details.

How the Immune System Works is written in the form of lectures, because I want to talk to you directly, just as if we were together in a classroom. Although Lecture 1 is a light-hearted overview, meant to give you a running start at the subject, you'll soon discover that this is not baby immunology. How the Immune System Works is a concept-driven analysis of how the immune system players work together to protect us from disease and, most importantly, why they do it this way.

In Lectures 2 through 10, I focus more closely on the individual players and their roles. These lectures are short, so you probably can read them all in a couple of afternoons. In fact, I strongly suggest that you begin by reading quickly through Lectures 110. The whole idea is to get an overall view of the subject, and if you read one lecture a week, that won't happen. Don't study these 10 lectures your first time through. Don't even bother with the Thought Questions at the end of each lecture. Just rip through them. Then, once you have a feel for the system, go back and spend a bit more time with these same 10 lectures to get a clearer understanding of the hows and whys.

In Lectures 1115, I discuss the intestinal immune system, vaccines, allergies, autoimmune disease, the AIDS virus, and cancer. These lectures will let you practice what you have learned in the earlier lectures by examining real-world examples of the immune system at work. So after you have gone through Lectures 110 twice, I'd suggest you read these last five lectures. When you do, I think you'll be amazed by how much you now understand about the immune system.

As you read, you will encounter passages highlighted in blue, and words that are highlighted in red. These highlights are to alert you to important concepts and terms. They also will help you review a lecture quickly, once you have read it through.