Introduction: Organ Specific Immunopathology

Introduction: Organ Specific Immunopathology

Immunopathology of Organ Transplantation

The early history of transplantation is born of legends. The Saints Cosmas and Damian, who lived in the third century allegedly, treated a white patient by removing one of his legs and by grafting that of a black man who had died the same day (Figure 1.1) (1). In modern times, many experimental transplantations, mostly in dogs and cats and then in humans, were attempted in the twenties and thir...

An introduction to immunology and immunopathology

In basic terms, the immune system has two lines of defense: innate immunity and adaptive immunity. Innate immunity is the first immunological, non-specific (antigen-independent) mechanism for fighting against an intruding pathogen. It is a rapid immune response, occurring within minutes or hours after aggression, that has no immunologic memory. Adaptive immunity, on the other hand, is antigen-d...

Introduction—target organ toxicity

The effects of progressive cachexia on protein metabolism in skeletal muscle has been investigated in mice bearing the MAC 16 adenocarcinoma which produces cachexia with tumour burdens of <1% of the host weight. Weight loss was accompanied by loss of whole body nitrogen in proportion to the overall loss of body mass. Using L-[4-3H]phenylalanine to label proteins in gastrocnemious muscle, a sign...

Tissue Specific Expression of Human Calcitonin Gene in Potato Tubers by an Organ Specific Promoter

To increase the production level of heterologous proteins in plants, strategies such as choice of strongerpromoters, optimization of codon usage and specific localization of foreign proteins are of major concern.Calcitonin (CT), a 32 amino acid polypeptide is a powerful and specific inhibitor of bone resorption and isused to treat several human diseases. Calcitonin activity is...