Many other common diseases are caused by autoimmunity such as juvenile diabetes and low thyroid disease. It has been recently discovered that some persons who suffer with hives or angioedema also have an autoimmune disease. In these cases, autoantibodies have been formed that bind to the Fc-receptor on mast cells.
Lesson Summary. Chitin is a primary component in the exoskeletons of arthropods and crustaceans and is also found in the cell walls of fungi. It's a polysaccharide, and it's excreted by the epidermal cells in arthropods. But, it can't grow with the animal, so shedding becomes necessary.
Although mammals do not produce chitin, they have two functional chitinases, Chitotriosidase (CHIT1) and acidic mammalian chitinase (AMCase), as well as chitinase-like proteins (such as YKL-40) that have high sequence similarity but lack chitinase activity.