B-CELL EPITOPE SPREADING IN AUTOIMMUNITY

How the immune response matures from recognizing a single or a few str uctures of the antigen to many is an obviously important process. Mode ls of B-cell epitope spreading have been developed in a variety of sys tems. For example, immunization of animals with PPPGMRPP, one of the e arliest B-cell epitopes in the anti-Sm response found in human lupus, leads to antispliceosomal autoimmunity and features of lupus. The humo ral immune response spreads from PPPGMRPP to other structures of the s pliceosome in an apparently reproducible sequence. B-cell epitope spre ading has provided the experimental basis from which a relationship be tween lupus and Epstein-Barr virus was suspected. An understanding of B-cell epitope spreading is likely to lead to important principles in basic immunology and to answers to human disease problems.