title: To be or Not to be ridded?--That is the question addressed by the associative antigen recognition model.
abstract: The reasons that germline-encoded recognitive sites cannot sort the immune system's large and random somatically generated repertoire into anti-Not-to-be-ridded ('self ') and anti-To-be-ridded ('nonself ') specificities are analysed. The immune system cannot use 'nonself '-markers of To-be-ridded antigens ('Danger', toll receptors, pathogenicity, localization, etc.) to sort the repertoire; it may, however, use them to determine the magnitude and class of the effector response.
authors.affiliation: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92186-5800, USA. cohn@salk.edu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Langman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology*; D018448:Models, Immunological; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens