title: Slow bacterial infections or autoimmunity?
abstract: In this article, Graham Rook and John Stanford propose that a group of idiopathic diseases that are often associated with a degree of autoimmunity and arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, sarcoidosis and psoriasis, are caused by extremely slow-growing bacteria. They suggest that these diseases are one end of a continuous spectrum caused by related slow-growing genera, which ranges from rheumatoid arthritis, through Takayasu's arteritis and Whipple's disease, to reach the conventional mycobacterioses such as tuberculosis and leprosy.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Medical Microbiology, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Rook
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Stanford
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000096:biosynthesis; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D015551:Autoimmunity; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000276:immunology; D007918:Leprosy / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D009164:Mycobacterium Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology; D013997:Time Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D016207:Cytokines; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; C064155:agalactosyl IGG