Production of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) is a consistent manifestation of SLE (frequency ∼100%) and often the earliest. This is not due to a global loss of tolerance, as the antigenic targets are highly restricted. Indeed, autoantibodies against chromatin/DNA, U1 small…
Introduction Mounting evidence suggests that microbes, including innocuous commensal organisms that colonize all humans, may trigger and sustain autoimmune inflammation in genetically susceptible hosts. Commensal microbial triggers have been implicated in a range of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus…
Introduction Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may experience arthritis, serositis, renal involvement, and a wide range of other clinical manifestations with the potential to affect nearly any organ system. These pathologies are driven by chronic inflammation and the presence…
Two and a half millennia ago Hippocrates used the word “apoptosis” to describe the gangrene resulting from treatment of fractures with bandages. Interestingly, he was describing a pathological form of tissue (cell) death. In 1972 Kerr reused the word “apoptosis”…
Introduction Antibodies are potent inducers of inflammation. A consistent feature of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the presence of autoantibodies and complement-fixing immune complexes (ICs) resulting in inflammatory lesions in multiple organ systems. Fc receptors, the receptors for IgG antibodies,…
Introduction The interferon (IFN) system consists of three different families of proteins (i.e., type I, type II and type III IFNs), and their cell surface receptor complexes. IFNs constitute an essential part of our innate and adaptive immune system, as…
Introduction In recent years it has become increasingly clear that aberrant response to nucleic acids (be they endogenous or exogenous) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients plays a large role in triggering and sustaining the disruption of immune responses in…
Cytokines in SLE Cytokines produced by the cells of the innate immune system important in SLE pathogenesis include interferon alpha (IFN-α), interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), IL-10, B cell activating factor (BAFF), and a proliferation inducing ligand (APRIL).…
Following the discovery of dendritic cells (DCs) in mice by Ralph Steinman in 1973, the early nineties saw the description of different culture conditions, allowing the generation of large numbers of DC, and energized the study of DCs in both…
Introduction Neutrophils are the most abundant immune-competent cells in the peripheral blood, and represent up to ∼70% of total white blood cells. They play an important role in innate immune responses and are often at the first line of defense…