Author:

Keywords:

nonobese diabetic mice, organ-specific autoimmunity, family-member bim, cd4(+) t-cells, negative selection, b-cells, genetic-control, protein bim, apoptosis, self, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Immunology, NONOBESE DIABETIC MICE, ORGAN-SPECIFIC AUTOIMMUNITY, FAMILY-MEMBER BIM, CD4(+) T-CELLS, NEGATIVE SELECTION, B-CELLS, GENETIC-CONTROL, PROTEIN BIM, APOPTOSIS, SELF, Animals, Apoptosis, Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins, Autoantigens, Bcl-2-Like Protein 11, CD4 Antigens, Carrier Proteins, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, MAP Kinase Signaling System, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Mice, Inbred NOD, Multifactorial Inheritance, Protein Array Analysis, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Receptors, Interleukin-2, T-Lymphocytes, Thymus Gland, 1107 Immunology, 3204 Immunology

Abstract:

The cause of common polygenic autoimmune diseases is not understood because of genetic and cellular complexity. Here, we pinpoint the action of a subset of autoimmune susceptibility loci in the NOD mouse strain linked to D1mit181, D2mit490, D7,rnit101, and D15mit229 which cause a generalized resistance to thymic deletion in vivo that applies equally to Aire-induced organ-specific gene products in the thymic medulla and to systemic antigens expressed at high levels throughout the thymus and affects CD4(+).