Response to: 'Meanderings into the regulation of effector class by the immune system: derivation of the trauma model' by Melvin Cohn.
Cohn M. Meanderings into the regulation of effector class by the immune system: derivation of the trauma model. Scand J Immunol 2012;76:77-88 delves into the discussion of how the immune system might regulate the decision between the immune response effector classes, and in particular identifies some key questions that need to be asked to understand how different classes of immune response occurring at the same time might be able to remain coherent and discrete. This is a needed discussion that advances the field, and the experiments proposed will go a long way to increasing our understanding of effector class regulation. However, in my opinion, the author makes some strong statements requiring substantiation regarding the impossibility of the involvement of germline-selected recognitive events as participating in self/non-self discrimination. Furthermore, the present discussion ignores a large body of contemporary literature describing the function and specificity of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (T(reg) ) and formulates a theory that specifically excludes a role for T(reg)  in maintaining self-tolerance without placing the contemporary evidence in the context of that theory. Thus in my opinion, these shortcomings should be addressed by the author.
Department of Medical Microbiology, and Alberta Diabetes Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. ellestad@ualberta.ca
K K
KK
Ellestad
D000818:Animals; D007107:Immune System; D008954:Models, Biological