Influence of antigen processing in the shaping of an autoimmune T cell repertoire

My work sought to unravel the process by which targets (usually peptides) are generated or destroyed from intact antigen using a well characterised antigen that is attacked in an autoimmune kidney disease as a model. In doing this I hoped to account for how this process may lead to the survival of self-reactive T cells into the peripheral T cell repertoire as a possible mechanism of tolerance breakdown and the development of autoimmune disease. In the following sections I will introduce the basic concept of tolerance and discuss the possible mechanisms leading to the breakdown of tolerance and development of autoimmunity. Key to my work is the understanding of how antigen is processed and recognised by T cells. This will be covered in detail before considering how alterations in the processing pathway may lead to deviations in the immune response to self. The second section of this chapter will deal with the model of autoimmune kidney disease used for my research, Goodpasture's disease. I hope to highlight its strengths as a model of autoimmunity and cover in some detail what is already known about the immunopathogenesis of the disease including previous research within our own group. I will conclude with how this work lead on to my own research, detailing the aims of the study including an outline of the research approach used.