title: Control of peripheral T-lymphocyte tolerance in neonates and adults.
abstract: Neonatal life is a unique developmental stage, in which the peripheral T-lymphocyte pool is evolving in a lymphopenic environment and the freshly generated T lymphocytes are extensively migrating through non-lymphoid tissues. Here, we emphasize the consequences of neonatal lymphopenia and tissue accessibility for T-lymphocyte tolerance induction. We propose that self-destructive T-lymphocyte responses are prevented in the neonate by limiting homeostatic T-lymphocyte expansion and thereby the activation of potentially autodestructive memory T lymphocytes. Furthermore, the extensive migration through tissues might lead to a dominant form of tolerance in the neonatal phase, which is maintained throughout adult life, during which the tissues are no longer readily accessible to T lymphocytes. Thus, it is not only dendritic cells that are crucial for self-tolerance: neonatal mechanisms are also required.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum DKFZ, Molekulare Immunologie, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schüler
authors.forename: Günter J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hämmerling
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*