ABSTRACT
Because immunosuppressive drugs were the first therapeutic agents with marked immunopharmacological activities to be introduced into the clinical setting, adverse health effects associated with irnniunosuppression have long been recognised, and hence unexpected immunosuppression associated with occupational and/or environmental chemical exposures has most often been the primary focus of immunotoxicologists. Even though hypersensitivity and autoimmunity are areas of increasing concern, immunosuppression remains a central aspect of non-clinical immunotoxicity evaluation, and indeed it is the only aspect of possible immunotoxic effects caused by medicinal products and chemicals, which can be adequately predicted today, at least to some extent.
