This book provides a review of the roles of specific nutrients in maintaining the immune response and host protection against infection. It also considers the influence of various factors, such as exercise and ageing, on the interaction between nutrition and immune function. The main emphasis is on humans, but comparative mammalian data are also presented.The contents include methods for studying nutrient-immune function interactions, the impact of undernutrition on immune function and infection, the influences of fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins, and various minerals on immunity, immunological effects of changes throughout the life cycle, and public health policy implications.
Advanced students and researchers in nutritional science and immunology.
Part I: The Immune System
The immune system - An overview, G Devereux, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, UK
Evaluation of the effects of nutrients on immune function, S Cunningham-Rundles, Cornell University Weill Medical College, USA
Part 2: Individual Nutrients, Infection and Immune Function
Effect of post-natal protein malnutrition and intrauterine growth retardation on immunity and risk of infection, R K Chandra, Janeway Child Health Centre, St John’s, NF, Canada
Fatty acids, inflammation and immunity, P C Calder and C J Field
Arginine and immune function, M D Duff and J M Daly, Cornell University, USA
Glutamine and immune function, P C Calder and P Newsholme, University College of Dublin, Ireland
Sulphur amino acids, glutathione and immune function, R F Grimble, University of Southampton, UK
Vitamin A, infection and immune funtion, R D Semba, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
Antioxidant vitamins and immune function, D A Hughes, Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK
Zinc, infection and immune function, A S Prasad, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, USA
Role of iron in immunity and infection, S Kuvibidila, Louisiana State University, USA and B S Baliga, University of South Alabama, USA
Selenium and the immune system, R C McKenzie, University of Edinburgh, UK, J R Arthur, Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, UK, S M Miller, T S Rafferty and G J Beckett, University of Edinburgh, UK
Probiotics and immune function, H S Gill and M L Cross, Massey University, New Zealand
Part 3: Nutrition and Immunity through the Life Cycle
Role of local immunity and breast feeding in mucosal homeostasis and defence against infection, P Brandtzaeg, University of Oslo, Norway
Food allergy, E Opara, Kingston University, UK
Exercise and immune function - effect of nutrition, E W Petersen and B K Pederson, Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre, Denmark
Nutrition and aging of the immune system, B Lesourd, A Raynaud-Simon and L Mazari, Hopital Nord du CHU de Clermont Ferrand, France
Nutrition and immunity - Public health implications, A Tomkins, Centre for International Child Health, London, UK
"It will be an essential resource for any scientist interested in knowing how what people eat affects their immune function and susceptibility to infection. I certainly enjoyed reading it and am better informed for having done so."
M Gleeson, BJN, 90, 2003
"This book should provide an easy way for graduate students, as well as the rest of us, to update ourselves on recent advances in nutritional immunology."
C B Stephensen, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79, 2004