[The mechanism of autoantibody production in systemic autoimmune diseases]

The appearance of autoantibodies to nuclear autoantigens is the hallmark of systemic autoimmune diseases. The mechanism of the autoantibody production has remained elusive, though it is generally accepted that autoantigen-specific T cells drive the production. These autoantigen-specific T cells as well as autoreactive B cells can be found in peripheral blood from healthy people, suggesting that these autoreactive cells are regulated peripherally. In this review dealing with autoantibody production mechanism, the brief introduction of our approach employing mouse genetics is also included.