A Cartilage-Mimicking T-Cell Epitope on a 65K Mycobacterial Heat-Shock Protein: Adjuvant Arthritis as a Model for Human Rheumatoid Arthritis

The way the immune system evolved has been commonly thought to have been influenced during evolution through selective pressure exerted by microbial invaders. So, immune recognition and the subsequent immune response have become significant means of the host to combat the attack of exogenous invaders. Since, however, the exogenous microbial world presents itself with a wealth of antigenic variety on each single organism, immune recognition can be selective at the antigen level. Teleologically, an unselected response would be a very inefficient maneuver inevitably leading to jamming of the system. Moreover, one could envisage more pertinent reasons for being selective, among them that responding to certain antigens might jeopardize the maintenance of self integrity. This means that a response directed to such antigens might cause uncontrollable disturbances in the balance of elements that interact in the immunological network and might lead to the ultimate development of immunopathology. This could happen when the exogenous stimulator antigen bears a resemblance to self molecules, a situation called antigenic mimicry.