PubMed excerpts…

Lori,

T-cell deficiency does not seem linked to autoimmunity – hope this calms your fears til more is known.

quotes: (emphasis mine)

Autoimmunity is uncommon in patients with pure T-cell
immunodeficiency (Rosen, 1987). Children with X-linked
severe combined immunodeficiency exhibit T-cell maturation
arrest within the thymus (Sleasman et al, 1994). B-cell
numbers are normal, and immunoglobulin secretion can
occur in the presence of normal T-cell help. Although this is
the most common form of human SCID, autoimmunity has
not been reported in these patients,…..

While opportunistic infections are a
prominant feature of both adults and children with idiopathic
or congenital CD4+ T lymphocytopenia, [COLOR=”Blue”]autoimmune disease
has not been associated with this newly described
immunodeficiency of CD4+ T lymphocytes [/COLOR](Sleasman et al,
1990; Duncan et al, 1993; Ho et al, 1993; Smith et al,
1993; Spira et al, 1993).

In contrast to purely T-cell deficiencies, defects in immunoregulatory peptides involved
in cell-to-cell interactions are commonly associated with
autoimmune disease.

[COLOR=”Blue”]Unlike T-cell defects, humoral immunodeficiencies carry
a high risk of autoimmunity.[/COLOR] Children with X-linked
agammaglobulinemia have little detectable immunoglobulin
production due to a maturation defect in B-cell development
(Conley, 1985). Children with this disorder have a high
incidence of polyarticular arthritis and inflammatory bowel
disease (Barnett et al, 1970). X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome
results from a mutation within the gene encoding the ligand
for CD40 (Aruffo et al, 1993). This defect results in
ineffective immunoglobulin isotype class-switching from
IgM to IgG or IgA. In addition to antibody deficiency and
recurrent infections, affected boys have a high incidence of
autoimmune thrombocytopenia and autoimmune hemolytic
anemia (Cairns and Rosen, 1986).