Physiological autoimmunity or autoaggression

How does it happen that a healthy person reacts with the formation of high-affinity antibodies only to infectious agents dangerous to the body, but not to their own antigens, nor to foreign antigens that do not threaten them? This is a question that has been debated for over a hundred years. The problem is far from purely theoretical. The answer depends on what treatment approach will be chosen for autoimmune diseases. Over the past ten years, it has been convincingly shown that antigen-specific T- and B-lymphocytes are present in every healthy individual. Our data confirm that the reactivity of IgG in normal human serum to antigens in liver extract determined by Western blot is weak. However, IgG purified from the same serum at an identical concentration recognizes multiple liver antigens. The mere presence of autoreactive cells and antibodies is not sufficient to trigger an autoaggressive disease. The line between physiological autoreactivity and an autoaggressive immune response is not sharp and easy to draw. Lymphocytes recognizing autoantigens are under strict control in the healthy person. The monograph is devoted to the mechanisms of this control. Some unusual hypotheses and models aimed at unraveling the mystery of autoimmune diseases are also examined.