Immune-mediated tissue destruction or disregulation is the cause of multiple common, as
well as rare, endocrine disorders including type 1 diabetes, Graves' disease, Hashimoto
thyroiditis, and Addison's disease. Each of these disorders can be divided into a series of
stages beginning with genetic susceptibility, environmental triggering events, and active
autoimmunity, followed by metabolic abnormalities with overt disease. Common genetic
susceptibility is suggested by the clustering of a series of disorders in the same individual …