The Wellcome Trust lecture. Inflammatory responses to filarial connective tissue parasites.

The inflammatory responses to lymphatic filariae and to Onchocerca volvulus are reviewed with particular attention to evolutionary biology; inflammatory host spectrum; non-specific components; immunoregulation; immune evasion versus immunomodulation; chronic tissue damage and scarring and disease models. Basic principles of pathogenesis are emphasized, comparisons drawn with schistosome infection, and critical items of missing information are highlighted.