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IMMUNOTOXICOLOGY: THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING
Citation:
HOUSE, R. V. AND R. W. LUEBKE. IMMUNOTOXICOLOGY: THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING. 3rd Edition, Chapter 1, R. Luebke, R. House, and I. Kimber (ed.), Immunotoxicology and Immunopharmacology. CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, Boca Raton, FL, Part I:3-20, (2007).
Impact/Purpose:
to review the science of immunotoxicology
Description:
The science of immunotoxicology arguably began in the early 1970s, following the recognition of increased sensitivity to infection following exposure of test species, including guinea pigs, [1] mice, [2, 3] rats, [4] ducks, [5] hamsters and monkeys [6] to various xenobiotics. Reduced resistance to infectious disease was a well documented consequence of primary and acquired immunodeficiencies, but a novel outcome of xenobiotic exposure, leading some to characterize xenobiotic-induced immunosuppression as "chemical AIDS". Although the comparison was scientifically inappropriate, "immunotoxicity" was often thought of as synonymous with "immunosuppression" during the formative years of the discipline, although hypersensitivity, allergy and autoimmunity were recognized as potential exposure outcomes. The first review in the field of immunotoxicology was published by Vos [7], followed in 1978 by the first symposium organized specifically to address this topic at the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Safety. The number of investigators and laboratories conducting immunotoxicology research increased significantly in the US and Europe during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As research expanded during this period, many of the assays, methodologies and approaches that are currently used to identify potential immunotoxicants were developed.