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SUMMARY:Of Mice\, Men (and Dogs).  Lessons from the Study of Autoimmune Re
 sponses to Red Blood Cells - Professor Robert Barker\, Division of Applied
  Medicine\, University of Aberdeen
DTSTART:20090218T163000Z
DTEND:20090218T173000Z
UID:TALK16169@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Suzy Blows
DESCRIPTION:Attempts to determine the underlying causes of autoimmune dise
 ase have\, in many cases\, been hampered by a lack of knowledge of the tar
 get antigens.  The characterisation of human and animal red blood cell (RB
 C) autoantigens in autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) has provided an oppo
 rtunity to study the control of specific autoimmune responses of unequivoc
 al pathogenic relevance.  The results reveal that censorship of the autoim
 mune T and B cell repertoire by deletion and anergy is very incomplete in 
 healthy individuals\, even for widely distributed\, abundant self-antigens
  on RBC.  There is strong evidence that autoaggression by surviving T cell
 s is normally held in check by other mechanisms\, including failure to dis
 play the epitopes that they recognise\, and active immunoregulation.  A nu
 mber of hypotheses have been put forward to explain how such mechanisms ca
 n be overcome in autoimmune disease\, and\, taking advantage of the well-c
 haracterised RBC autoimmune responses\, these possibilities can be tested 
 in examples of AIHA in different species.  In particular\, studies of AIHA
  have shed light on the role of cross-reactivity or molecular mimicry betw
 een self and foreign antigens\, defects in regulation\, and aberrant antig
 en presentation in the loss of self-tolerance\, and on the links between a
 utoimmunity and cancer.  These findings are relevant to the understanding 
 of other autoimmune diseases\, and to the rational design of effective\, t
 argeted therapies for this group of conditions.
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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