Immunology Today, vol. 6, No. 3, 1985

Molecular Immunology, A T e x t b o o k

edited by M. Zauhair Atassi, Card, J. ~'an Oss and Darryl R. Absolom, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 19.84. US$47.50 (x + 725 pages) I S B N 0 824 77045 5

I recently heard the comment that a prestigious North American university had no 'molecular immunologists'. Knowing that over the years a consider- able amount of molecular data of immunological importance had ema- nated from this particular institution ~I was rather surprised, t eventually realized that the complainant was refer- ring to the lack of molecular geneticists working on immunological problems, which serves to illustrate the point that molecular immunology means different things to different people.

This textbook has its roots firmly in what used to be known as ' immuno- chemistry' - the world where antibodies and antigens are structural entities, studied at the level of three-dimensional structure and with considerable empha- sis on the physical chemistry of their interaction. Molecular genetics is given short shrift. A brief chapter by Early on the organization and rearrangement of immunoglobulin genes is the sole repre- sentative of the field, and consequently the above-mentioned complainant

might not find the book too appealing. For the person more generally interested in molecular aspects of immunology, however, the book has much to recom- mend it.

As anticipated in the preface, and indeed as might be expected in a book edited by three individuals and with forty-four separate authors, there is considerable 'heterogeneity of style', not to mention content and depth. Some chapters are necessarily didactic, such as, for example, the thorough chapter by van Oss and Absalom on the 'Nature and Thermodynamics of Antigen-Anti- body Interactions'. Others are review articles, ranging in style from that by Atassi, which concentrates almost exclu- sively on his own excellent contributions to the study of the antigenic determin- ants of protein, to that by Lillehoj and Poulik, which merits the alternate title 'Everything you ever wanted to know about /~2-microglobulins' - and, per- haps, many things you didn't . Still other chapters concentrate on techniques, which is unusual in a textbook such as this, but many budding and practicing molecular immunologists might find it useful to have on their shelves a book with practical chapters on radioimmuno- assays, immunofluoresceuce and immunoelectron microscopy.

Many of the chapters are surprising inclusions in a molecular immunology textbook. The chapter by Janeway on lymphocyte interactions is one such surprise, although too brief to serve as

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much more than an introduction to the area and as a glossary of terms. Another surprise is the more detailed discussion of immunological networks by Bona. Chapters on lymphokines, genetic regulation of the immune response, cell adhesion, etc., all serve to show how blurred the distinction is beginning to get between molecular and cellular immun- ology.

The coverage of M H C antigens (of some personal interest), whilst inef- ficient, with discussion of the subject in four different chapters, is probably adequate with the exception of the omis- sion of genetic structure. One would like to see a single chapter on the structure of M H C antigens of mouse and man, abandoning the artificial separation used in this text. The lessons of one species apply so well to the understanding of the other.

The function of a critic is to criticize, and criticism of a multifaceted, multi- authored textbook is rather too easy. There are always good points and usually bad ones. The ultimate question is, is it worth owning this book? The authors' intention was to aim the text- book at graduate students and post- doctoral fellows, and I think that they and more senior investigators might benefit from it. My copy will certainly not remain unopened.

PETER CRESSWELL

Division of Immunology, Duke University Medical Centre, Box 3010, Durham, NC 27710, USA.