Prevention of gastric autoimmunity by transgenic expression of a proton pump subunit in the thymus

Abstract

Autoimmune gastritis is an excellent example of the organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The gastric lesion, characterized by loss of parietal and chief cells from the mucosa and submucosal lymphocytic infiltration, is the underlying basis for pernicious anaemia, the most common cause of vitamin B12 deficiency in whites of northern European origin (Gleeson and Toh, 1991; Toh et al, 1992). The gastric parietal cell appears to be the principal cell targeted since autoantibodies to parietal cells and to intrinsic factor (a parietal cell secretory product) are found in most patients with pernicious anaemia and parietal cell autoantibody titres correlate with severity of gastritis. These parietal ..