Human tissue immune complex disease

In the last decade, numerous new techniques have been developed for the detection and quantitation of immune complex material in tissue and biological fluids. In many respects, clinical studies using these techniques have substantiated the primary pathogenic role of immune complexes in a variety of human diseases. At the same time, these studies have reaffirmed the notion that immune complexes occur frequently in the course of an immune response or as an epiphenomenon unrelated to pathogenesis, and that, despite the presence of immune complexes, typical clinical manifestations of immune complex disease may be an unusual event. 

Thus, the role of cytokines in inflammation, immune-cell function and tissue repair is varied and complex. Later sections of this book explore the cytokines generated by neutrophils during inflammatory challenge ( 7.3.4), the regulation of neutrophil function by cytokines ( 7.2.1) and human diseases associated with neutrophil dysfunction in which cytokines may play important roles ( 8.2.5, 8.8). 

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