The continuous discovery of autoantigens in endocrine organ-specific autoimmunity: do they help us to understand pathogenesis?

Autoimmune diseases, with the exception of rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune thyroiditis, are individually rare, but taken together they occur in up to 3-5% of the population in Western countries. These disorders are generally classified according to what organs and tissues are targeted by the damaging immune response In general, autoimmune diseases appear to have a multi-factorial pathogenesis, in which both genetic and environmental factors play important roles Several organ- and non-organ-specific autoantibodies are produced in organspecific autoimmunity. These antibodies are detectable at the time of diagnosis, but are also present in the latency period which precedes the clinical onset of disease, as best exemplified by the study of the natural history of T1DM. Autoantibodies should serve as indicators of the antigen-specific T cell responses, including those of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subpopulations considered separately.