No man is an island; no island is an island: does the immune network extend beyond the limits of skin?
Now that we are moving towards a post-antibiotic era, it may be necessary to reevaluate our concept of immunology. A long-standing handicap may be that, thus far, we have focused exclusively on the individual and his own immune machinery. A search for community interactions, also involving microflora, may provide clues for our survival under the extremely unhygienic conditions of the past as well as the present. Among the many adverse factors, could there also be hidden beneficial effects as well? If so, the development of such factors to therapeutic significance would be a worthwhile challenge. Diverse historical chronicles and a certain resistance shown by infants in shanty towns, after the maternal immune protection has faded and until their own immune system is fully developed, led us to postulate that adaptation is a prerequisite for any subject in order to benefit from unhygienic crowded conditions.
Rewald
E
E
Francischetti
M M
MM
González
C
C
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology*; D018448:Models, Immunological; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena