autoimmunity

(noun)

The condition where one's immune system attacks one's own tissues, i.e., an autoimmune disorder.

Related Terms

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.