Selection and fine-tuning of the autoimmune T-cell repertoire

The immune system must avoid aggressive T-cell responses against self-antigens. But, paradoxically, exposure to self-peptides seems to have an important role in positive selection in the thymus and the maintenance of a broad T-cell repertoire in the periphery. Recent experiments have highlighted sit...

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Published inNature reviews. Immunology Vol. 2; no. 7; pp. 487 - 498
Main Authors Anderton, Stephen M, Wraith, David C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 01.07.2002
Subjects
Animals
Antigens
Apoptosis
Autoantigens - immunology
Autoimmune Diseases - immunology
Cells
Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - immunology
Humans
Immune system
Kinases
Ligands
Lymphocytes
Peptides
Phosphatase
T-Lymphocytes - immunology
Thymus gland
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:The immune system must avoid aggressive T-cell responses against self-antigens. But, paradoxically, exposure to self-peptides seems to have an important role in positive selection in the thymus and the maintenance of a broad T-cell repertoire in the periphery. Recent experiments have highlighted situations that allow high-avidity self-reactive T cells to avoid negative selection in the thymus. Accumulating evidence indicates that other, non-deleting mechanisms control the avidity with which T cells recognize self-antigens--a phenomenon that is known as 'tuning'. This might maximize the peripheral T-cell repertoire by allowing the survival of T cells that can respond to self, but only at concentrations that are not normally reached in vivo.
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ISSN:1474-1733
1474-1741
DOI:10.1038/nri842