Intrathymic and extrathymic clonal deletion of T cells.
Clonal elimination accounts for self-tolerance induction in the thymus and also affects mature T cells responding to exogenous antigens in the periphery. Recent evidence on the microenvironments, cell-cell interactions and signalling requirements for clonal deletion of immature and mature T cells is discussed.
Sprent
J
J
Department of Immunology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Webb
S R
SR
D000818:Animals; D017637:Clonal Deletion / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*