Autoimmunity

Autoimmunity is an immune response directed against the body's own molecules or tissues. It can occur without causing disease, or contribute to autoimmune disease when self-directed responses cause damage.

Central tolerance: Immune-cell development processes that eliminate or alter strongly self-reactive lymphocytes in the thymus and bone marrow. It removes many self-reactive T cells and B cells before they enter circulation.
Systemic lupus erythematosus: A chronic autoimmune disease that can affect skin, joints, kidneys, blood cells, and other organs. It illustrates autoimmunity directed at widely distributed self-antigens.
Adaptive immune system: The immune system's antigen-specific defenses, mediated chiefly by B cells, T cells, and their products. Autoimmunity often involves the antigen-specific recognition machinery of this system.
Immune tolerance: The immune system's state of reduced responsiveness to a particular antigen. Tolerance to self is the restraint that autoimmunity breaks or bypasses.
Peripheral tolerance: Mechanisms that restrain self-reactive immune cells outside the primary lymphoid organs. It limits self-directed responses that escape central tolerance.
Rheumatoid arthritis: A chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that primarily affects the joints. It shows how persistent self-directed inflammation can damage joint tissue.
B cell: A lymphocyte that can develop into an antibody-secreting cell and participate in antigen presentation. B cells can produce autoantibodies and help activate other immune cells.
Autoimmune disease: A disease in which immune responses against self contribute to tissue injury or dysfunction. Autoimmunity can exist without disease; this concept concerns its harmful clinical form.
Regulatory T cell: A T-cell subset that suppresses immune responses and helps maintain tolerance to self. These cells restrain self-reactive lymphocytes in tissues and lymph nodes.
Type 1 diabetes: An autoimmune disease in which immune cells destroy insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. It is a clear example of autoimmunity targeting a specific cell population.

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