Autoimmune Disease Articles

Autoimmune Diseases (ADs) represent a heterogeneous group of disorders with genetic, environmental and individual etiological factors. The etiopathogenesis of systemic ADs has previously been attributed to T cell deficiencies, polyclonal B cell activation, macrophage dysfunction and environmental factors. ADs affect organs and tissues such as blood vessels, connective tissues, thyroid, pancreas, joints, muscles, and skin. Allogenic Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) transplantation has been shown to be a relatively successful treatment for experimental ADs, and there are a number of reports of Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) being used to treat ADs in various mice. For example, the following were all resolved after BMT: Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM), in which beta cells are destroyed by the immune system; Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which primarily attacκs the synovial joints; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), which is a chronic auto-inflammatory disease of unκnown etiology; Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which affects the brain and the central nervous system, and Autoimmune Pancreatitis (AIP), which produces pancreatic masses and ductal strictures. ADs show abnormal autoimmune responses by auto-antibodies and T- cell responses to self-molecules in pathological conditions. Abnormal immune regulatory processes are represented as they are characterized by activation and expansion of immune cell subsets in response to non-pathogenic stimuli. Autologous BMT can treat ADs because it can ablate an abnormal self-reactive immune system resulting from chemotherapy and regenerate a self-tolerant immune system from HSCs

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Last date updated on September, 2024