Autoimmunity can be defined as immune responses directed against selfantigens and an autoimmune disorder as a disease which results from autoimmunity. The cells of the immune system with “antigenic specificity“ are B and T lymphocytes. An essential feature of the above definition of...

This disease is known by many names, most commonly as autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type I (APS–I). We prefer the name autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis–ectodermal dystrophy (APECED), because it reminds of the three groups of components of this disease. “Syndrome,“ implying a...

The two major autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes are termed autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS-I) and APS-II. 1-4 These syndromes are of particular interest in that they have led to the identification of a series of diseases of autoimmune etiology 5-8 and they have provided...

Toward the end of the nineteenth century Louis Pasteur demonstrated that widespread immune–mediated self–destruction of neural tissue occurs in animals exposed to crude extracts of central nervous system (CNS) antigens. Based on these observations, Paul Ehrlich hypothesized that the natural...

Celiac disease is a common, often asymptomatic immune-mediated disorder with a preva-lence of approximately 1/200 in Western populations. The disorder is typically associated with intestinal lesions leading to diarrhea and weight loss. In the most severely diseased patients death occurs in the...

The human AITDs 1 include hyperthyroid Graves‘ disease (classical Graves‘ disease with thyrotoxicosis), euthyroid Graves‘ disease (without thyrotoxicosis), both with or without Graves‘ orbitopathy, and autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto‘s disease), including the goitrous form...

Although HLA and disease association has been studied for many diseases, only four dis- eases have been identified in which almost all patients have the same HLA antigen; B27 in 88% of ankylosing spondylitis, 1 DR4 in 91% of patients with pemphigus vulgaris, 2 DR2 in 100% of patients with...

Diabetes mellitus is a series of disorders characterized by absolute or relative insulin deficiency that leads to hyperglycemia and altered glucose metabolism. These disorders are associated pathologically with micro- and macrovascular disease leading to accelerated arteriosclerosis, and...

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is not one of the most common autoimmune disease (approximate prevalence of 0.1 per thousand in Western Europe) but it is certainly one of the most thoroughly studied autoimmune diseases. There is a very useful experimental animal model, induced by sensitization against the...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that affects CNS myelin. MS is characterized by multiple perivascular lesions found throughout the white matter in the brain and spinal cord, which are often periventricular. Although the cause and...

Our knowledge of the physiology and pathophysiology of immune responses in the central (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems (PNS) has grown over the last decade. This new information has facilitated advances in experimental and clinical investigations and the application of new therapies to...

Uveitis is a term originally used to describe an inflammatory process of the uvea (the median layer of the eye or tunica vasculosa bulbi , which includes the iris, ciliary body and choroid). 1 This term however, has been used loosely to describe any intraocular inflammation affecting the uvea...