Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases

This book is a continuance of the topic: 'DAMPs in Human Diseases', the basics of which were described in a first volume by the same author. This second volume presents our current understanding of the impact of sterile stress/injury-induced innate immune responses on the etiopathogenesis of human diseases by focusing on those diseases that are pathogenetically dominated by DAMPs, i.e., on polytrauma, various solid organ injuries (brain, lung, kidney, liver), atherosclerosis, and cerebro-cardiovascular diseases.

Our growing understanding of the pathogenetic function of activating DAMPs and suppressive DAMPs ('SAMPs') is used as a point of departure to explore how these molecules can be used as biomarkers to extend and improve current diagnostic and prognostic modalities.

Moreover, this new knowledge about the pathogenetic function of DAMPs and SAMPs is taken as a sound and plausible reason for discussing their implications for present and future treatment of the diseases addressed here. In this context, the focus is on the potential of DAMPs as future therapeutic targets and SAMPs as future therapeutics, applied in strict compliance with safety precautions, as also recommended in this work.

The book is intended for professionals from all medical and paramedical disciplines who are interested in applying innovative data from inflammation and immunity research to clinical practice. The readership will include practitioners and clinicians working in the broad field of acute and chronic inflammatory/fibrotic diseases, in particular, traumatologists and intensivists; neurologists and neurosurgeons; cardiologists and cardiac surgeons; pulmonologists and thoracic surgeons; vascular surgeons; nephrologists; gastroenterologists and hepatologists; and pharmacists.

Also available: Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases - Vol. 1: Injury-Induced Innate Immune Responses

Walter G. Land is Professor Emeritus of the LMU University in Munich, Germany. After earning his MD, he spent 4 years specializing in Experimental Surgery, Immunology, and Organ Transplantation at the Institute for Surgical Research, LMU University, Munich. In 1979 he performed the first pancreas transplant in Germany at Klinikum Großhadern, where he subsequently spent almost 30 years as Head of the Transplantation Center. He also held a position as C3 Professor for Surgery and Transplantation Surgery in Munich for almost 20 years, until 2004. He is Emeritus Professor at LMU University Munich (Germany), while also holding a position as Professeur Conventionné at the University of Strasbourg (France). Professor Land has been a co-founder of many European and German Societies, including the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), European College of Organ Transplantation, the German Transplantation Society (DTG), the German Academy of Transplantation Medicine (DAT), and the International DAMPs Association (IDA). He is also an honorary member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the European Academy of Tumor Immunology; elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; a member of the Transplantation Society and the German Society for Immunology.

 Professor Land has chaired the European Society for Organ Transplantation, the Society of Transplantation and Innate Immunity, and the Society of Innate Immunity. He is the author or editor of many articles and books, was awarded the Erich Lexer Prize by the German Surgical Society in 1991, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1996, the Bavarian State Medal for Social Merit in 1997, the Millennium Medal of the Transplantation Society in 2000, and the Maharshi Sushruta Prize for Transplantation Biology in India in 2005.