The changing concepts of amyloid

The first issue of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, publish ed 75 years ago, contained an article by Richard Jaffe on the experimental induction of amyloidosis in mice, This publication was one of a series of m ilestones that have marked our ongoing and evolving concept of amyloidosis, beginning with the first description by Virchow more than a century ago. S ince that time, scientific understanding of amyloidogenesis has expanded th rough the involvement of newly developed techniques, such as biochemical an alysis, electron microscopy, and molecular genetics. As a result of these i nvestigations, it is now known that amyloidoses comprise an entire family o f sporadic, familiar and/or inherited, degenerative, and infectious disease processes, linked by the common theme of abnormal protein folding and depo sition. This article seeks to provide a synopsis of the present state of ou r knowledge with regard to these disorders, including current terminology, classification, major clinical syndromes, and diagnosis.