Auto-Immune Diseases

The immune system may stop recognising the body's own antigens and start attacking body tissues.This leads to autoimmune diseases.This could be because the immune system responds abnormally to a mild pathogen or normal body microorganisms or because T reg cells do not adequately suppress or regulate the immune response.The reasons are not understood fully.There are about 80 different auto-immune diseases that can cause chronic inflammation or destruction of healthy tissue.Immunosuppressant drugs can be used to treat these diseases but they leave the person susceptible to infections.Common autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis affecting the joints, Lupus affecting the skin and joints and Type 1 diabetes affecting the insulin secreting cells of the pancreas.