Abstract
The Fifth International Congress on Familial Mediterranean Fever and Systemic Autoinflammatory Diseases (Rome, Italy, 4–8 April, 2008) reviewed developments in the field of innate immunity and discussed their relevance to the pathogenesis of associated diseases. The meeting gathered over 300 participants from 32 countries. New modes of inheritance of autoinflammatory diseases, animal models, novel related genes and the remarkable efficacy of IL-1β blockage in most of these diseases were emphasized.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to P Hawkins, J Chae, F Martinon and J Drenth for helpful discussions. Due to space limitations, we were obliged to omit some presentations and we extend our apologies to those concerned.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.