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Letter

Nature Medicine 10, 1234–1239 (1 November 2004) | doi:10.1038/nm1114

TCR affinity and negative regulation limit autoimmunity

Matthew A Gronski , Jonathan M Boulter , Demetrius Moskophidis , Linh T Nguyen , Kaisa Holmberg , Alisha R Elford , Elissa K Deenick , Hee O Kim , Josef M Penninger , Bernhard Odermatt , Awen Gallimore , Nicholas R J Gascoigne & Pamela S Ohashi

Autoimmune diseases are often mediated by self-reactive T cells, which must be activated to cause immunopathology. One mechanism, known as molecular mimicry, proposes that self-reactive T cells may be activated by pathogens expressing crossreactive ligands.