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Current Issues in Developmental Immunotoxicity

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Immunopathology in Toxicology and Drug Development

Part of the book series: Molecular and Integrative Toxicology ((MOLECUL))

Abstract

Developmental immunotoxicity (DIT) occurs when early-life events reshape immune development to the point of altering immune system responses, often with negative consequences for an organism. Within the vein of toxicology, such events include exposure to exogenous risk factors, including chemical, biological, or physical agents that change the course of immune system development. Early-life exposure to such events may result in suppression, hyperactivation , and/or misregulation of a host of immune responses to result in inflammatory diseases, allergy and asthma, autoimmune diseases, and/or decreased resistance to infectious agents. This chapter will review current issues associated with DIT, including an overview of current guidelines for assessing DIT in experimental animal models, lifetime health risks thought to be associated with DIT, the need for DIT testing in safety assessments of chemical substances, and the impacts of “twenty-first century toxicology” on DIT approaches and methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, 6S-10 Brody Building, 600 Moye Blvd, Greenville, NC, 27834, USA

    Jamie C. DeWitt

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, 173520, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA

    Deborah E. Keil

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  1. Jamie C. DeWitt
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  2. Deborah E. Keil
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Correspondence to Jamie C. DeWitt .

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  1. Charles River Laboratories, Inc. , Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA

    George A. Parker

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DeWitt, J.C., Keil, D.E. (2017). Current Issues in Developmental Immunotoxicity. In: Parker, G. (eds) Immunopathology in Toxicology and Drug Development. Molecular and Integrative Toxicology. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47377-2_13

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