Immune focusing vs diversification and their connection to immune regulation.
Immune focusing vs diversification and their connection to immune regulation.
复制标题
免疫聚焦与多样化及其与免疫调节的联系。
DOI：
10.1111/j.1600-065x.1998.tb01202.x
复制
发表时间：
1998
影响因子：
8.7
通讯作者：
Sercarz,EE
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Sercarz,EE
There are two diametrically opposed tendencies that characterize the functioning of the immune system: on the one hand, there is the drive towards immunodominance, and on the other, the apparent diversification and broadening of specificity that is evident in many responses and especially during the chronic course of autoimmunity. It has been argued that immunodominance in an evolutionary sense came about so as to allow responses to be cogently regulated. A chaotic diversification including hundreds of separate responses would clearly be much more difficult to regulate. The immune system is replete with competitive situations at every level, designed to minimize the number of victorious competitors. It is well known that although many potential class I binding motifs exist on the average antigen, very few potential determinants gain the opportunity of inducing CD8-cytotoxic or suppressive T cells. Other examples include the competition (immunodominance) among determinants at the level of entering the MHC peptidebinding groove, between MHC class II molecules for binding to the most available peptide along an unfolding andgen molecule, among T cells for response to a single determinant leading to a hierarchy of induction, among B cells leading to an affinity maturation, among idiotopes some of which become predominant, etc. The competitive force is usually in the arena of comparative affinities or avidities and, in the power struggles that take place on the immune battleground, there are few winners and many losers. As a result of these many competitions at all stages of responsiveness, the resulting response no longer reflects the immune potential of die systetn but rather is limited; presumably it is easier to regulate. However, the subject under discussion in this volume of Immunologicai Reviews concerns the opposite of such focusing: rather it is the nature of the diversification of lymphoid cells with varying recognition specificities and response capabilities.
