Current concepts of immunodeficiency disorders.

The technical developments in immunology and molecular biology during the 1970s, the growing use of organ transplantation during this period, and the abrupt emergence of AIDS in 1981 made the 1980s a fruitful period for investigating basic mechanisms of immunodeficiency. Now armed with powerful molecular biologic techniques, such as the polymerase chain reaction, we can identify specific genes and viruses that result in immunodeficiency. Complications associated with immunodeficiency, such as malignant lymphoma and opportunistic infections, have provided pathologists with opportunities for investigating the pathogenesis of this and other related diseases. An impetus for developing new diagnostic immunologic and molecular biological methods will be sustained during the 1990s. Pathologists working in the 21st century will be participants in the use of gene therapy for primary immunodeficiency diseases and for conquering AIDS. Perhaps with the declining threat of thermonuclear annihilation, we will tackle the largest cause of acquired immune deficiency, protein-calorie malnutrition.