| Autor: |
Pollard KM; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA; email: mpollard@scripps.edu., Cauvi DM; Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California 92093, USA., Mayeux JM; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA; email: mpollard@scripps.edu., Toomey CB; Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA., Peiss AK; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA; email: mpollard@scripps.edu., Hultman P; Departments of Clinical Pathology and Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 85 Linköping, Sweden., Kono DH; Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. |
| Abstrakt: |
Although numerous environmental exposures have been suggested as triggers for preclinical autoimmunity, only a few have been confidently linked to autoimmune diseases. For disease-associated exposures, the lung is a common site where chronic exposure results in cellular toxicity, tissue damage, inflammation, and fibrosis. These features are exacerbated by exposures to particulate material, which hampers clearance and degradation, thus facilitating persistent inflammation. Coincident with exposure and resulting pathological processes is the posttranslational modification of self-antigens, which, in concert with the formation of tertiary lymphoid structures containing abundant B cells, is thought to promote the generation of autoantibodies that in some instances demonstrate major histocompatibility complex restriction. Under appropriate gene-environment interactions, these responses can have diagnostic specificity. Greater insight into the molecular and cellular requirements governing this process, especially those that distinguish preclinical autoimmunity from clinical autoimmunedisease, may facilitate determination of the significance of environmental exposures in human autoimmune disease. |
