title: Discrimination between self and nonself.
abstract: An hypothesis is presented that relates the ability of the immune system to distinguish between "self" and "nonself", the generation of diverse lymphocyte receptors and the role of the major histocompatibility complex. Experimental evidence supporting this hypothesis includes the recent discovery of a cell in the thymus that appears to inactivate thymus-derived lymphocytes reactive against self histocompatibility antigens.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic