{"term":{"id":"13121","title":"epitope spreading","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - epitope spreading","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.13121","code":"13121","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Increase in the number of epitopes targeted by autoantibodies and\/or T cells. The epitopes may be on the same autoantigen (intramolecular epitope spreading) and\/or on other autoantigens (intermolecular epitope spreading).","notes":{"1":"This is a characteristic sign of progression of autoimmune disease from initial activation to a chronic state."},"links":[{"term":"T cells","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13724"},{"term":"autoantibodies","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/12913"},{"term":"autoantigen","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/12914"},{"term":"autoimmune disease","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/12919"}],"sources":["PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1162 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/PAC-REC-11-06-03)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13121\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13121\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13121\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'epitope spreading' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.13121","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-07-25T15:00:49+00:00"}}