Autoimmune diseases comprise a bizzare collection of disorders with little apparent in
common other than that each is associated in some manner with an immune response in
which self components are recognized in an aberrant and exaggerated manner. As it has
become more apparent that potentially autoreactive clones and selfrecognition constitute
normal components of a functional immune system, the central question of “what causes
autoimmunity?" has often been broached in the context of “what prevents …