Conference on Behçet's Disease

Organised and chaired by professors M. Zierhut (University of Tubingen, Germany) and S. Ohno (Hokkaido University, Japan) a two-day workshop on "Immunology of Behçet's Disease" was held in Ettal (Bavaria-Germany) on October 12 and 13, 2000. There were about 40 participants, 25 of whom gave formal papers. Even though the main heading was immunology many aspects of BD were discussed including epidemiology and treatment. One scientific highlight of the meeting was the papers and the related discussion about the new transgenic animal models including the transgenic HLA B51, MICA and HLA B51+MICA. However neither the basic science or the clinical students of BD found the clinical findings or the immunological/propensity to inflammation characteristics of these animal models entirely satisfactory. Another highlight of the meeting was the treatment of severe eye disease by TNF-alpha blockage as presented by S. Ohno. Even the numbers treated were rather small; the results were quite promising.