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Natural regulatory T cells and self-tolerance

Nature Immunology volume 6, pages 327–330 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The adaptive immune system allows individual organisms to mount defensive reactions against unanticipated pathogens by developmentally creating a diverse repertoire of clonally distributed receptors capable of recognizing a multitude of antigens and then expanding as effector cell populations those that can recognize molecules from the pathogens. To function properly, the system must deal with the problem of randomly generated receptors that can recognize self components. Most solutions to this self-tolerance problem are cell intrinsic and involve the deletion or inactivation of autoreactive cells. However, an extrinsic form of dominant tolerance has been demonstrated that takes the form of CD4+ regulatory T cells. This perspective discusses why such a mechanism might have evolved and the problems it presents for self–non-self discrimination.

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Figure 1: Selection of the T cell repertoire as a consequence of TCR avidity for self antigens expressed in the thymus.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks P. Matzinger, N. Singh, R. Germain and A. Coutinho for discussions on this topic.

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  1. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892, Maryland, USA

    Ronald H Schwartz

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Schwartz, R. Natural regulatory T cells and self-tolerance. Nat Immunol 6, 327–330 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni1184

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