Altered immunoendocrine dialogue in autoimmune disease.

Autoimmune diseases have a multifactorial pathogenesis including essential genetic and nonessential modulatory factors. Among the essential factors, not only should genes coding for an abnormal reactivity of the immune system be considered, but we have, in addition, provided experimental evidence for the existence of genes responsible for a susceptibility of the target organ/structure for the autoimmune attack. Only when both sets of essential genes are present does an autoimmune disease develop at all. The modulatory factors then determine the final outcome in each case. The present contribution discusses the immunomodulating role of glucocorticoid and sex steroids focussing on the Obese Strain (OS) of chickens, a model for Hashimoto thyroiditis.