Cooper Edwin L
Laboratory of Comparative Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Integr Zool. 2006 Mar;1(1):32-43. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-4877.2006.00010.x.
As a discipline, comparative immunology enhances zoology and has gained wide acceptance in the biological sciences. It is an offshoot of the parent field, immunology, and is an amalgam of immunology and zoology. All animals from protozoans to humans have solved the threat of extinction by having evolved an immune-defense strategy that ensures the capacity to react against foreign, non-self microorganisms and cancers that disturb the homeostatic self. Invertebrate-type innate immune responses evolved first and they characterize the metazoans. These rapid natural responses act immediately and are often essential for the occurrence of slower, more specific, adaptive vertebrate-type immune responses. As components of the innate immune system, there is an emphasis on several major steps in the evolutionary process: (i) recognition; (ii) the phagocytic cell; and (iii) the natural killer cell. When vertebrates evolved, beginning with fish, thymus-controlled T cells first appeared, as did bone marrow-derived B cells (first found in amphibians with long bones). These were the precursors of the plasma cells that synthesize and secrete antibodies. Confirming the concept of self/non-self, invertebrates possess natural, non-adaptive, innate, non-clonal, non-anticipatory immune responses, whereas vertebrates possess adaptive, acquired, clonal, and anticipatory responses. This symposium concerns: (i) aspects of the immune spectrum in representative groups; (ii) specific findings (in particular models; e.g. earthworms); (iii) clues as to the possible biomedical application of relevant molecules derived from animals, notably invertebrates; and (iv) some views on the more practical applications of understanding immune systems of invertebrates and ectotherms, and their possible role in survival.
作为一门学科，比较免疫学促进了动物学的发展，并在生物科学领域得到了广泛认可。它是母学科免疫学的一个分支，是免疫学与动物学的融合。从原生动物到人类的所有动物都通过进化出一种免疫防御策略来解决灭绝的威胁，这种策略确保了对干扰体内平衡自我的外来非自身微生物和癌症作出反应的能力。无脊椎动物类型的先天免疫反应首先进化，它们是后生动物的特征。这些快速的自然反应立即起作用，对于较慢、更具特异性的适应性脊椎动物类型免疫反应的发生通常至关重要。作为先天免疫系统的组成部分，进化过程中有几个主要阶段受到关注：（i）识别；（ii）吞噬细胞；（iii）自然杀伤细胞。当脊椎动物进化时，从鱼类开始，胸腺控制的T细胞首次出现，骨髓来源的B细胞（首次在有长骨的两栖动物中发现）也出现了。这些是合成和分泌抗体的浆细胞的前体。证实了自我/非自我的概念，无脊椎动物具有天然的、非适应性的、先天的、非克隆的、非预期的免疫反应，而脊椎动物具有适应性的、后天获得的、克隆的和预期的反应。本次研讨会关注：（i）代表性群体免疫谱的各个方面；（ii）具体发现（特别是模型；例如蚯蚓）；（iii）来自动物，特别是无脊椎动物的相关分子可能的生物医学应用线索；（iv）关于理解无脊椎动物和变温动物免疫系统的更实际应用及其在生存中可能作用的一些观点。
