Abstract

The mammalian immune system has an extraordinary potential for making receptors that sense and neutralize any chemical entity entering the body. Inevitably, some of these receptors recognize components of our own body, and so cellular mechanisms have evolved to control the activity of these 'forbidden' receptors and achieve immunological self tolerance. Many of the genes and proteins involved are conserved between humans and other mammals. This provides the bridge between clinical studies and mechanisms defined in experimental animals to understand how sets of gene products coordinate self-tolerance mechanisms and how defects in these controls lead to autoimmune disease.

1. John Curtin School of Medical Research, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia.
2. Australian Phenomics Facility, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia (Email: Chris.Goodnow@anu.edu.au).
3. Department of Immunology, IMM4, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
4. Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.