Basic Immunology: Functions and Disorders of the Immune System

Abstract

Having already produced a now classic immunology textbook (1), Abbas and Lichtman have done another good job in preparing this book primarily for students and others with little or no background in immunology. It will also serve researchers with little training in immunology well. Today's immunology, at its current level of complexity, could not be put into 232 pages of text in a more comprehensive, yet accessible, way. The plain language, coupled with the unintimidating size of the book, relieves the apprehensive reader at the outset. Abundant diagrams, figures, charts, and tables make it easier to follow the subject. A majority of these are in color. Even the text is frequently decorated with sections in boldface type to emphasize key concepts so that by just skimming through the pages and reading only those highlighted sections one can get a quick sense of basic immunology in minutes. But there is more. Each chapter is summarized in bullet form with accompanying review questions. The book ends with a list of suggested readings (carefully selected except for the reference to the 1993 map of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) which is now updated by the report of the MHC Sequencing Consortium in Nature, 1999;401:921) and three appendices containing 1) a list of known CD molecules, 2) a 24-page glossary, and 3) five clinical cases with questions and answers. The index is rather comprehensive as well. Nothing in this book seems to have been done just for the sake of it, and the precious whole is presented as a handy package.