The Biology and Physiopharmacology Of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide Endotoxins And Their Role In Immunoregulation - An Introductory Preview

Abstract

The topic of the immunobiology and immunopharmacology of bacterial endotoxins has attracted the attention of many biomedical investigators, including immunologists, microbiologists and biochemists, as well as physiologists, pharmacologists and clinical practitioners of medicine. This has occurred mainly because of the realization that these important bacterial components affect many normal physiologic events and metabolic reaction of a host, including the immune system. Endotoxins have been studied for many decades in terms of their chemistry and chemical reactivity. Although constituting a diverse group of distinct chemical moieties on the bacterial cell surface, as indicated in the preface, bacterial endotoxins may have different effects on different target organs and cells. This volume provides a focus for presentation of pertinent newer findings concerning the immunologic and pharmacologic effects of endotoxins and to interrelate these effects with physiologic and immunologic alterations which may occur, both in disease states as well as in specific situations in which endotoxins may be used for therapy, especially in viral and cancer pathology.