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Books > Medicine > Clinical & internal medicine > Diseases & disorders > Immunology
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The Limits of the Self - Immunology and Biological Identity (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,370
Discovery Miles 13 700
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The Limits of the Self - Immunology and Biological Identity (Paperback)
Expected to ship within 12 - 19 working days
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What counts as an individual in the living world? What does it mean
for a living thing to remain the same through time, while
constantly changing? These questions are the province of
immunology, one of the most dynamic fields in biology. Immunology
answers these questions with its theory of "self" and "nonself"
which has dominated the field since the 1940s. Thomas Pradeu argues
that this theory is inadequate, because immune responses to self
constituents and immune tolerance of foreign entities are the rule,
not the exception. Instead Pradeu advances an alternative theory,
the continuity theory, which offers a new way to answer the
question of what triggers an immune response. It also echoes the
recent realization that all organisms, and not only higher
vertebrates, have an immune system. Pradeu's main thesis is that
the self-nonself theory should be abandoned, but that immunology
still proves to be decisive for delineating the boundaries of the
organism. Articulating an evolutionary and an immunological
perspective, he offers an original conception of the organism.
Tolerance of the fetus by the mother and of countless bacteria on
the body's surfaces proves that every organism is heterogeneous,
that is, made of entities of different origins. In other words,
every organism appears as a chimera , a mixed living thing-the
cohesiveness of which is ensured by the constant action of its
immune system. The Limits of the Self, will be essential reading
for anyone interested in the definition of biological individuality
and the understanding of the immune system.
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