Van Parijs, L., & Abbas, A. K. (1998). Homeostasis and self-tolerance in the immune system: turning lymphocytes off. Science, 280(5361), 243-248.
Abstract
The immune system responds in a regulated fashion to microbes and eliminates them, but it does not respond to self-antigens. Several regulatory mechanisms function to terminate responses to foreign antigens, returning the immune system to a basal state after the antigen has been cleared, and to maintain unresponsiveness, or tolerance, to self-antigens. Here, recent advances in understanding of the molecular bases and physiologic roles of the mechanisms of immune homeostasis are examined.