How does the immune system know what is self and what is foreign? The molecules of which human “self” is made are basically the same as those used in the construction of any other biological organism, including pathogenic microbes. This touches on the important issue of immune tolerance. Breakage of self-tolerance results in autoimmune disease. This chapter looks at a number of human autoimmune diseases, how they originate, how they are treated now, and promising directions for treatment in the future.
Keywords: tolerance, diabetes, lupus, myasthenia gravis, rheumatoid arthritis,