Auto-immune Disease: Some General Principles

Abstract

Four central concepts are presented which may be helpful for the understanding of auto-immune disease:

1.	The immune status of the body is a manifestation of the population dynamics of lymphoid cells which are immunologically competent.
2.	The existence of a mechanism of immunologic homeostasis ensures the maintenance of full tolerance for all normal body components.
3.	Auto-immune disease is a result of the emergence of “forbidden clones” that for one reason or another find it possible to transgress the normal rule and react damagingly with body constituents.
4.	Circulating antibody is regarded primarily as an index of the presence of corresponding immunologically competent cells. It is neither necessarily nor in most cases probably the actual pathogenic agent in auto-immune disease.