Very nice slides, except for one piece of information in the presentation. Allergies are not autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune disorders are when the body attacks something that is part of itself. Examples of autoimmune disorders are rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Grave's Disease, among many others.
http://www.healthlin...rders#Overview1
Allergies are when the body mounts a specific type of response (usually by producing IgE antibodies to a protein or other type of molecule) to a component of something external that should be benign, such as pollen, food, animal dander, latex, certain plant oils, or many others.
A good example of the difference is celiac sprue disease, which is an autoimmune disorder involving a reaction to gluten that targets intestinal cells but it is not an allergy.
You can produce an allergic response using a non-protein molecule (like the metal nickel) because it binds to the body's proteins and thus the body recognizes the combination as foreign. The immune system does not attack the body's proteins by themselves, only when the material (called a hapten) is bound to it. The US plant called Poison Ivy works like that; the oil on the leaves binds to skin proteins as it passes through and people become allergic to it. On its own, it is benign. It makes us realize that we must always remember the lesson of poison ivy, because we never know what will hapten. That's a very bad Immunology pun, lol!
The distinction between allergy and autoimmunity is important, and is often confusing to most people. Immunology is a complex and fascinating field, and we still don't know a lot about it. I loved working in Immunology research for many years, and I still keep up with it. Lots of fun!
Martha
"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Viktor E. Frankl
"Life's like a movie, write your own ending." The Muppets
