Dysregulation of thymic clonal deletion and the escape of autoreactive T cells.
Events ongoing in the thymus are critical for deleting developing thymocytes specific for tissue antigens, and establishing self-tolerance within the T cell compartment. Aberrant thymic negative selection, however, is believed to generate a repertoire with increased self-reactivity, which in turn can contribute to the development of T cell-mediated autoimmunity. In this review, mechanisms that regulate the efficacy of negative selection and influence the deletion of autoreactive thymocytes will be discussed.
Kroger
Charles J
CJ
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Mary Ellen Jones Bldg., Room 635, Campus Box 7290, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7290, USA.
Flores
Rafael R
RR
Morillon
Maurice
M
Wang
Bo
B
Tisch
Roland
R
D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D017637:Clonal Deletion; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*