Autoantibodies and autoimmunity : molecular mechanisms in health and disease / edited by K. Michael Pollard.

This is the first book to address all aspects of the biology of autoantibodies in a single volume, including a discussion of immunology, experimental models, clinical aspects, and the use of autoantibodies as probes in molecular and cellular biology. The editor, currently professor at the W.M. Keck Autoimmune Disease Center of The Scripps Research Institute, has assembled an all--star team of authors to report on the latest research, technologies, and applications. Following an introductory chapter, the book goes on to cover such topics as cellular mechanisms of autoantibody production, clinical and diagnostic usefulness in human disease, and animal models used to study the elicitation of autoantibodies. The whole is rounded off with a look at future perspectives. With its comprehensive coverage, this volume will appeal not only to immunologists and clinicians but also to cell and molecular biologists.

Prefactory chapter : the importance of the autoantibody-defined epitope / Eng M. Tan -- Self/non-self recognition / Alan G. Baxter -- Central and peripheral tolerance / Robert L. Rubin -- T-B cell interactions in autoimmunity / Barbara Schraml and Stanford L. Peng -- Cell death and autoimmunity / Carlos A. Casiano and Fabio J. Pacheco -- Self-antigen modification and autoimmunity / Stuart M. Levine, Livia Casciola-Rosen, and Antony Rosen -- Detection of antibodies / Rufus W. Burlingame and Carol Peebles -- Synthetic peptides for the analysis of B-cell epitopes in autoantigens / Jean-Paul Briand and Sylviane Muller --Autoantibodies and systematic autoimmune diseases / Karsten Conrad and Michael Bachmann -- Autoantibodies in systematic lupus erythematosus / Falk Hiepe -- Autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis / Tsuneyo Mimori -- Autoantibodies and organ-specific autoimmunity / H. Bantel, J. Kneser, and M.P. Manns -- Autoantibodies in autoimmune thyroid disease / Osvaldo Martinez and Bellur S. Prabhakar -- Autoantibodies in diabetes / Sarah M. Weenink and Michael R. Christie -- Autoantibody recognition of cellular and subcellular organelles / Ivan Raška and Šárka Růžičková -- Antibody recognition of macromolecular structures / Erica A. Champion and Susan J. Baserga -- Autoantibodies and the cloning and characterization of cellular constituents / Edward K.L. Chan -- Tolerance and immunity to the Ro/La RNP complex / Catherine L. Keech, Tom P. Gordon, and James McCluskey -- Autoantibody recognition of functional sites / Carlo Selmi ... [et al.] -- Novel mechanisims of autoantibody induction and pathogenesis in experimental autoimmunity / Yulius Y. Setiady and Kenneth S.K. Tung -- Environmental factors that contribute to autoimmunity / Per Hultman -- Genetics of autoantibody production in mouse models of lupus / Dwight H. Kono and Argyrios N. Theofilopoulos -- Genetic manipulation / Matthew C. Pickering and Mariana Botto -- Perspectives / K. Michael Pollard.

Includes bibliographical references and index.