title: An affinity/avidity model of peripheral T cell regulation.
abstract: We show in these studies that Qa-1-dependent CD8+ T cells are involved in the establishment and maintenance of peripheral self tolerance as well as facilitating affinity maturation of CD4+ T cells responding to foreign antigen. We provide experimental evidence that the strategy used by the Qa-1-dependent CD8+ T cells to accomplish both these tasks in vivo is to selectively downregulate T cell clones that respond to both self and foreign antigens with intermediate, not high or low, affinity/avidity. Thus, the immune system evolved to regulate peripheral immunity using a unified mechanism that efficiently and effectively permits the system to safeguard peripheral self tolerance yet promote the capacity to deal with foreign invaders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA. hj4@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yilun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bitao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Zongyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Guomei
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kanellopoulos
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soloski
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Winchester
authors.forename: Itamar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chess
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D017634:Self Tolerance / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001324:Autoantigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; C032907:Q surface antigens