Immunological Methods [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION J.F. Ackroyd In recent years immunological techniques have been used for the investigation of an ever increasing number of problems in many diiferent branches of medicine. To mention only a few: in endocrinology, they are being applied to the assay of hormones in blood and urine, and in obstetrics, one of these techniques is being used as a simple test for pregnancy. In morbid histology, fluorescent antibody techniques have opened up new fields of research. Most of the hazards of blood transfusion have been overcome as a result of increasing knowledge of blood group serology. Furthermore, almost all our understanding of auto-immime disease stems from the results of immunological research. But it is perhaps from the application of immunological techniques to surgery that the greatest advances will be made. The problems of the homograft reaction are now being studied all over the world, and if these can be solved, then organ transplantation may well become a routine procedure and surgery may achieve its greatest advance since the introduction of antiseptic, and later, aseptic methods first made extensive surgical procedures possible. Information about the principles of immunology and details of what may be described as its fundamental techniques can be foimd in standard text books, but information about the ways in which immunological methods are being applied to the sort of problem just mentioned is less easy to fmd. Moreover, as in any other rapidly growing subject, there are differences of opinion, both as to the best methods to use, and as to the deductions that can be made from the results obtained. It was therefore felt that it would be very helpful if such subjects could be discussed by a group of workers with experience of a wide variety of diiferent immunological techniques. Several well known immunologists including Dr R.R.A. Coombs, Professor J. V. Dacie, Professor P. Grabar, Dr J.H. Humphrey, Professor E.A. Rabat and Dr R.G. White, were consulted. Acting on their advice, and under the auspices of the cioms. a number of scientists, including