Immune system protects integrity of tissues.
The immune system neither discriminates between "Self" and "Nonself", nor it acts when confronting "Danger", rather, it reacts to disruption of tissue integrity allowing its renewal. The "integrity" hypothesis proposes three groups of signals that coordinate actions of dendritic cells and immunocytes during the initiation of the specific immune response, and suggests explanations for tolerance, memory formation, and repertoire selection, including differences with other theories.
Dembic
Z
Z
Institute of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, The National Hospital, Sognsvannsveien 20, 0027, Oslo, Norway. zlatko.dembic@labmed.uio.no
D005075:Biological Evolution; D017635:Clonal Anergy; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology*; D007109:Immunity; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D018448:Models, Immunological; D017634:Self Tolerance; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology