Brain, Vol. 126, No. 8, 1913-1914,
August 2003
© 2003 Guarantors of Brain
doi: 10.1093/brain/awg185
Book Review |
IMMUNE AND INFLAMMATORY RESPONSES IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, 2ND EDITION
Department of Neuroimmunology, Guys Hospital, GKT School of Medicine, London, UK
IMMUNE AND INFLAMMATORY RESPONSES IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Edited by Nancy Rotherwell and Sarah Lodick
2003. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Price £55. pp. 177. ISBN 0-19-850980-4.
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
This multi-author book, like the first edition and despite the title, concentrates mainly on features of the inflammatory response in the CNS, its peculiarities and possible significance in the development of neuronal loss during disease and following trauma. Inflammation is a basic pathological process and its role in diseases of the CNS has always been of interest, in part because it is not quite the same as in the peripheral tissues. Peculiarities of the CNS—the blood–brain barrier, absence of lymphatics, high density of endogenous down-regulated myeloid cells (microglia) and small extracellular space—all contribute to the characteristics of inflammation in this tissue. But there has also been an increasing awareness that inflammation in chronic degenerative diseases involving neuronal loss may not just be a response to the degeneration but may also be contributory to the tissue damage. Inflammation is a response to the breaching of a tissue’s integrity, directly or as