title: Homeostasis and self-tolerance in the immune system: turning lymphocytes off.
abstract: The immune system responds in a regulated fashion to microbes and eliminates them, but it does not respond to self-antigens. Several regulatory mechanisms function to terminate responses to foreign antigens, returning the immune system to a basal state after the antigen has been cleared, and to maintain unresponsiveness, or tolerance, to self-antigens. Here, recent advances in understanding of the molecular bases and physiologic roles of the mechanisms of immune homeostasis are examined.
authors.affiliation: Immunology Research Division, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Parijs
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Abbas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D017209:Apoptosis; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D017635:Clonal Anergy; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D017634:Self Tolerance; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D001324:Autoantigens