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Self-tolerance, or the ability of the immune system to refrain from destroying the organism's own tissues, is a prerequisite for proper immune system operation. How such self-tolerance is achieved is still a subject of debate. The belief that autoimmunity poses a continuous threat to the organism was challenged by data demonstrating that autoimmunity has a protective function after traumatic injury to the central nervous system. This finding led us to suggest the ‘comprehensive immunity’ approach by which autoimmunity is viewed as a special case of immunity, namely as a defense mechanism that operates by fighting against the threat of potential destructive activity originated or mediated within the organism, similarly to the immune defense that operates against the threat from exogenous pathogens. We present a primary mathematical spatio-temporal model that supports this concept. The numerical solutions of this …