Immunology

This comprehensive treatise on the reticuloendothelial system is a project jointly shared by individual members of the Reticuloendothelial (RE) Society and bio- medical scientists in general who are interested in the intricate system of ceHs and molecular moieties derived from those ceHs which constitute the RES. It may now be more fashionable in some quarters to consider these ceHs as part of what is caHed the mononuclear phagocytic system or the lymphoreticular system. Nev- ertheless, because of historical developments and current interest in the subject by investigators from many diverse areas, it seems advantageous to present in one comprehensive treatise current information and knowledge concerning basic aspects of the RES, such as morphology, biochemistry, phylogeny and ontogeny, physiology, and pharmacology as weIl as clinical areas including immu- nopathology, cancer, infectious diseases, allergy, and hypersensitivity. It is antic- ipated that by presenting information concerning these apparently hetero- geneous topics under the unifying umbreHa of the RES attention will be focused on the similarities as weIl as interactions among the ceH types constituting the RES from the viewpoint of various disciplines. The treatise editors and their editorial board, consisting predominantly of the editors of individual volumes, are extremely grateful for the enthusiastic cooperation and enormous task under- taken by members of the biomedical community in general and especially by members of the American as weIl as European and Japanese Reticuloendotheli~l Societies.