title: If the "adaptive" immune system can recognize a significant portion of the pathogenic universe to which the "innate" immune system is blind, then...
abstract: The "adaptive" immune repertoire functionally recognizes pathogens (and their toxic products) that the "innate" defense system misses. This requires that the self-nonself discrimination and the regulation of effector output be dependent primarily on somatic learning mechanisms (i.e. on the somatically generated, large, random "adaptive" immune paratopes repertoire).
authors.affiliation: Conceptual Immunology Group, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. cohn@salk.edu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cohn
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology*; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D018448:Models, Immunological; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology