On the opposing views of the self-nonself discrimination by the immune system.
Today's generally accepted view of the self-nonself discrimination was voiced by Miller(1) in 2004 in a thought-provoking essay. In spite of its popularity, this position has its limitations, which are analyzed here with a view toward establishing an interactive discussion that hopefully will culminate in agreed upon decisive experiments. The inadequacies of Miller's view of the self-nonself discrimination and their resolution under the associative recognition of antigen model are analyzed.
Cohn
Melvin
M
Conceptual Immunology Group, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. cohn@salk.edu
D000818:Animals; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System; D017634:Self Tolerance; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology