title: Dysregulation of thymic clonal deletion and the escape of autoreactive T cells.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Mary Ellen Jones Bldg., Room 635, Campus Box 7290, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7290, USA.
authors.forename: Charles J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kroger
authors.forename: Rafael R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morillon
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tisch
mesh_terms: 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*