Vaccination against autoimmune disease with lines of autoimmune T lymphocytes

The etiological agents of auto' mmune diseases are endogenous lymphocytes which attack apparently normal constituents of the individual, while in infectious disease the individual is attacked by an exogenous microbial agent. Nevertheless, the clinical expression of autoimmunity and infection may result from similar pathological processes of edema, cellular infiltration, phagocytosis, cytotoxicity, fibrosis, calcification, etc. And as Irun Cohen and colleagues show here both types of illness can be studied to advantage by the basic strategy of isolating in pure culture the etiological agent of disease.