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Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases in the Elderly

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Handbook of Immunosenescence

Abstract

It is commonly believed that the incidence of autoimmune diseases, manifesting themselves by rise in disease-specific antibodies on one side and by disease-specific symptoms on the other, is rising with advancing age. On the other hand, prevalence of the autoimmune diseases (including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and myasthenia gravis) is indeed rising in the elderly cohort but mainly because those diagnosed at an earlier age and properly treated tend to live longer. In this chapter we show that in fact a relatively typical (and unusual) feature of the elderly immune system is transient production of autoantibodies, which do not have any deleterious clinical consequences and may disappear without a trace. These antibodies, in addition to relatively well-known occurrence of rheumatoid factor, may include those pathognomonic for autoimmune diseases, like antinuclear antibody (ANA), antithyroglobulin, antithyroid peroxidase, anti-parietal cells, anti-mitochondrial, anti-smooth muscle, and many other types of autoantibodies. Their appearance may result from impaired balance and regulation of different subclasses of the immune cells, including various forms of the regulatory T cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Experimental Rheumatology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

    Ewa Bryl

  2. Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

    Jacek M. Witkowski

Authors
  1. Ewa Bryl
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  2. Jacek M. Witkowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ewa Bryl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatrics Research Center on Aging, University of Sherbrooke Department of Medicine, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

  2. Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Claudio Franceschi

  3. Institute for Health and Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsuiku Hirokawa

  4. Center for Medical Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Graham Pawelec

Section Editor information

  1. Research Center on Aging, Department of Medicine, Immunology Graduate Programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

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Bryl, E., Witkowski, J.M. (2019). Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases in the Elderly. In: Fulop, T., Franceschi, C., Hirokawa, K., Pawelec, G. (eds) Handbook of Immunosenescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99375-1_51

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