title: Autoimmunity against laminins.
abstract: Laminins are ubiquitous constituents of the basement membranes with major architectural and functional role as supported by the fact that absence or mutations of laminins lead to either lethal or severely impairing phenotypes. Besides genetic defects, laminins are involved in a wide range of human diseases including cancer, infections, and inflammatory diseases, as well as autoimmune disorders. A growing body of evidence implicates several laminin chains as autoantigens in blistering skin diseases, collagenoses, vasculitis, or post-infectious autoimmunity. The current paper reviews the existing knowledge on autoimmunity against laminins referring to both experimental and clinical data, and on therapeutic implications of anti-laminin antibodies. Further investigation of relevant laminin epitopes in pathogenic autoimmunity would facilitate the development of appropriate diagnostic tools for thorough characterization of patients' antibody specificities and should decisively contribute to designing more specific therapeutic interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Department of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Regional Institute, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Florina
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Florea
authors.affiliation: Institute for Dental Research and Oral Musculoskeletal Biology and Center for Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, D-50931 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Kurume University Institute of Cutaneous Cell Biology, 67 Asahimachi, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: cassian@mail.sitaru.eu.
authors.forename: Cassian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sitaru
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007797:Laminin / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D009154:Mutation / Q000276:immunology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D007797:Laminin
keywords: Animal model; Antibodies; Lupus; Pemphigoid; Vasculitis; p200