Thesis (Masters Degree( Medical Technology) --Cape Technikon, Cape Town,1996 / Intensive investigations in many different populations over the last decade, have indicated a
failure to understand the inheritance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was hoped that genes within
the class IT region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHq could shed some light on the
inheritance of this autoimmune disease and which are now known without doubt, to confer
susceptibility to the disease. Genetic studies of RA have concentrated primarily on its
autoimmune nature and several investigations of MHC class IT molecules, have demonstrated an
association between specific HIA alleles and susceptibility to RA, in particular the DRBI*04
and DRBI*01 alleles.
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The HIA system is known to be associated with many diseases involving an immune aetiology.
The structural features of specific DR and DQ genes give clues to the molecular mechanisms by
which these alleles are associated with RA It has been found by many investigators that there is
more than one susceptibility allele for RA at the DRBI locus.
Questions arise whether the DRBI molecule itself directly contributes to the pathogenesis ofRA
and why some DRBI genes carrying DRBI*04 alleles, are not associated withRA
Animal studies have emphasised the critical importance of T-cells in the pathogenesis of RA
Immune responsiveness is thought to be controlled by specific allelic variation by determining
the ability of specific T-cell receptors (fCRs) to be triggered by recognition of class IT molecules
during the induction of the immune response.
In a disease such as RA, however, where multiple alleles are thought to confer risk, it is not yet
known whether each of these alleles shares some common structural feature triggering a single
T-cell pathway or whether each allele represents an alternative recognition site which triggers
different T-cell clones, all of which lead to a similar clinical syndrome.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1475 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Pokorny, Ljubica |
| Publisher | Cape Technikon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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