Polyspecificity of autoimmune responses in type 1 (autoimmune) diabetes

Abstract

Autoimmunity is, by definition, supposed to be antigen specific [1], yet for almost 50 years, associations have been recognized between different autoimmune diseases [2–5]. For example, the increased incidence of gastric and thyroid autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes was first reported in 1963 [6]. These associations are in addition to the occasional cases of the autoimmune polyglandular syndromes [7] and are found independently of chronic mucocutaneous moniliasis, which is characteristic of the Type I syndrome (APECED), and Addison's disease which invariably occurs in the Type II syndrome [8].