Autoantigens

Autoimmunity
Classification and external resources
ICD-9-CM	279.4
OMIM	109100
DiseasesDB	28805
MeSH	D001327
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Autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells and tissues. Any disease that results from such an aberrant immune response is termed an "autoimmune disease". Prominent examples include celiac disease, diabetes mellitus type 1, sarcoidosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's syndrome, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, Addison's disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis, polymyositis (PM), and dermatomyositis (DM). Autoimmune diseases are very often treated with steroids.

In the later 19th century it was believed that the immune system was unable to react against the body's own tissues. Paul Ehrlich, at the turn of the 20th century, proposed the concept of horror autotoxicus. Ehrlich later adjusted his theory to recognize the possibility of autoimmune tissue attacks, but believed certain innate protection mechanisms would prevent the autoimmune response from becoming pathological.

In 1904 this theory was challenged by the discovery of a substance in the serum of patients with paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria that reacted with red blood cells. During the following decades, a number of conditions could be linked to autoimmune responses. However, the authoritative status of Ehrlich's postulate hampered the understanding of these findings. Immunology became a biochemical rather than a clinical discipline. By the 1950s the modern understanding of autoantibodies and autoimmune diseases started to spread.

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