Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Autoimmun. 2011 Jun 1;37(2):104–112. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2011.05.004

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Possible mechanisms for intermolecular epitope spreading within the snRNP complex. For simplicity, only three components of snRNP are included in this illustration. Four possible mechanisms are illustrated: I. Intrastructural T cell help hypothesis. II. Role of immune complexes in epitope spreading. III. Role of cross-reactivity in epitope spreading and IV. Epitope spreading controlled by cross-reactive T cells. Mechanisms I-III cannot account for the specific patterns of epitope spreading. There is no evidence for the generation of specific Abs from cross-reactive Abs. There is evidence to support mechanism IV and further experimental approaches can be designed to test its validity.