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Perspective
Nature Reviews Immunology 1, 147–153 (1 November 2001) | doi:10.1038/35100573
From T to B and back again: positive feedback in systemic autoimmune disease
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Abstract
Systemic lupus erythematosus, a prototypical systemic autoimmune disease, is the result of a series of interactions within the immune system that ultimately lead to the loss of self-tolerance to nuclear autoantigens. Here, we present an integrated model that explains how self-tolerance is initially lost and how the loss of tolerance is then amplified and maintained as a chronic autoimmune state. Key to this model are the self-reinforcing interactions of T and B cells, which we suggest lead to perpetuation of autoimmunity as well as its spread to multiple autoantigen targets.
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