title: Buridan's ass: one man's view of the immune system.
abstract: This essay offers a highly biased and prejudiced interpretation of the immune response. The major points of this interpretation are: B and T lymphocyte diversity is generated by rearrangements within and among existing receptorcoding genes; the T cell receptor is a molecule genetically more closely related to immunoglobulins than to the products of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC); the course of B and T lymphocyte differentiation is largely the same except for a final processing of T lymphocytes in the thymus; the processing is directed by MHC molecules of the thymus epithelium; Ir and Ia genes are identical; and the function of MHC polymorphism is to generate diversity at the population level.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D000939:Epitopes; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens