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Death, symbolized by the autumn leaf, befalls tumor cells (star-shaped) that receive lytic granules (red in the original micrograph) from cytotoxic T lymphocytes. This month's Focus on Cell Death and Immunity comprises four reviews (starting on p. 399) and four more in Nature Reviews Immunology. All reviews and online features are available free to registered users through 1 July 2003. Original photo by Federico Gallo. Artwork by Lewis Long.
Historical insight: Immunology's founding fathers argued fiercely about whether Metchnikoff's phagocytes or Ehrlich's antibodies were the most important mediators of immunity. Antibodies won out, but even after lymphocytes re-established cellular immunology, the humoralist-cellularist divide persisted.
Experiments based on the requirement for immunoglobulin gene transcription provide new insights into the elusive role played by AID in immunoglobulin class switching and hypermutation.
Generation of B cell memory requires CD4+ T cell help and involves triggering of CD40 in target B cells. Several recent studies indicate that similar signals are involved in the generation of memory CD8+ T lymphocytes.
Many infectious agents elicit a type I interferon response, but the molecular details that lead to IFN-α/β expression have remained obscure. New details are emerging about how specific TLRs signal IFN-α/β expression.
This joint web focus with Nature Reviews Immunologyexamines recent inroads into how cell death pathways intersect with the immune system during both development and disease.