Autoimmunity Methods and Protocols

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought. ” — Albert Szentgyörgyi Autoimmunity: Methods and Protocols is intended to serve as a ready-to-use guide to establish and interrogate human and animal models of autoimmune diseases. The first chapter, “Pathogenesis and Spectrum of Autoimmunity,” discusses major hypotheses driving this most tantalizing area of research since Paul Ehrlich proposed the concept of autoimmunity in 1900. Considering the great diversity and ever-changing spectrum of autoimmunity, it has not been possible to include models and experimental protocols for each known disorder. Rather, several chapters have been devoted to the most prevalent and complex diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and multiple sclerosis. The chapters are contributed by laboratories actively using the models presented. Each chapter contains an introductory section that discusses the relevance of the model for a particular disease and for autoimmunity in general. Part I contains methods and protocols to assess immunological and biochemical pathways relevant for disease pathogenesis. Chapters in this section focus on methods to identify susceptibility genes, intercellular signaling via cytokines, intracellular signaling through the T-cell receptor and signal processing via protein kinases, identification and enumeration of autoantigen-specific T cells and autoantibodies, and the dysregulation of apoptosis and its role in modification of self-antigens. Part II contains protocols to establish and assess inflammatory arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, myocarditis, thyroiditis, experimental autoimmune encepha- myelitis, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, scleroderma, uveitis, and vitiligo.