autoimmunity
(noun)
The condition where one's immune system attacks one's own tissues, i.e., an autoimmune disorder.
Examples of autoimmunity in the following topics:
-
The Roles of Genetics and Gender in Autoimmune Disease
- Autoimmune diseases are very often treated with steroids.
- Autoimmunity should not be confused with alloimmunity.
- While a high level of autoimmunity is unhealthy, a low level of autoimmunity may actually be beneficial.
- A person's sex also seems to have some role in the development of autoimmunity, classifying most autoimmune diseases as sex-related diseases.
- Define autoimmunity and explain how it gives rise to autoimmune disease
-
Cytotoxic Autoimmune Reactions
- Autoimmune diseases are very often treated with steroids.
- Autoimmunity should not be confused with alloimmunity.
- A person's sex also seems to have some role in the development of autoimmunity, classifying most autoimmune diseases as sex-related diseases.
- According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), autoimmune diseases that develop in men tend to be more severe.
- The reasons for the sex role in autoimmunity are unclear.
-
The Complement System and Heart Disease
- In autoimmune heart diseases, the body's immune defense system mistakes its own cardiac antigens as foreign, and attacks them.
- Autoimmune heart diseases result when the body's own immune defense system mistakes cardiac antigens as foreign, and attacks them, leading to inflammation of the heart as a whole, or in parts.
- The most common form of autoimmune heart disease is rheumatic heart disease, or rheumatic fever.
- A typical mechanism of autoimmunity is autoantibodies, or auto-toxic T-lymphocyte mediated tissue destruction.
- Aetiologically, autoimmune heart disease is most commonly seen in children with a history of sore throat caused by a streptococcal infection.
-
Cell-Mediated Autoimmune Reactions
- Cell-mediated autoimmunity can happen by several mechanisms involving cells of the immune system and their receptors.
- Several mechanisms are thought to be operative in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, against a backdrop of genetic predisposition and environmental modulation.
- When tolerance to self proteins is lost, DQ may become involved in autoimmune disease.
- Two autoimmune diseases in which HLA-DQ is involved are celiac disease and diabetes mellitus type 1.
- Define cell-mediated autoimmunity and describe the mechanisms that are thought to operate in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease
-
Immune Complex Autoimmune Reactions
- Immune complex deposition is a prominent feature of several autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, cryoglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, and Sjögren's syndrome.
-
Type II (Cytotoxic) Reactions
- Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormones (a serious metabolic imbalance known as hyperthyroidism and thyrotoxicosis).
- Autoimmune diseases resemble type II-IV hypersensitivity reactions.
- Below are some examples of Type II hypersensitivity-like autoimmunity.
-
Regulatory T Cells
- These cells are involved in shutting down immune responses after they have successfully eliminated invading organisms, and also in preventing autoimmunity.
- Induced Regulatory T (iTreg) cells (CD4+CD25+Foxp3+) are suppressive cells involved in tolerance. iTreg cells have been shown to suppress T cell proliferation and experimental autoimmune diseases. iTreg cells develop from mature CD4+ conventional T cells outside of the thymus: a defining distinction between natural regulatory T (nTreg) cells and iTreg cells.
-
Primary and Secondary Antibody Responses
- Disorders of the immune system can result in autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer.
- In contrast, autoimmunity results from a hyperactive immune system attacking normal tissues as if they were foreign organisms.
- Common autoimmune diseases include Hashimoto's thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus type 1, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
-
The Future of Diagnostic Immunology
- Immunologists work in many different disease areas today that include allergy, autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, transplantation, and cancer.
-
Type III (Immune Complex) Reactions
- Immune complex deposition is a prominent feature of several autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, cryoglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and Sjögren's syndrome.
- Immune complex deposition is a prominent feature of several autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, cryoglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and Sjögren's syndrome.