Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4497905 Journal of Theoretical Biology 2009 10 Pages PDF
Abstract
The immune system of vertebrates may attack its own body and cause autoimmunity diseases. To prevent autoimmunity, regulatory T cells suppress the activity of the autoreactive effector T cells, but they also interrupt normal immune reactions against foreign antigens. In this paper, we discuss the advantage of having some regulatory T cells by considering the host's ability of coping with foreign antigens and the harm of autoimmunity. Assumptions are as follows: the immature T cells reactive to abundant self-antigens are eliminated, those reactive to rare self-antigen will become regulatory T cells, and those that fail to interact with the antigens to which they are reactive will become effector T cells. Some self-reactive immature T cells may fail to interact with their own target antigens during the limited training period, and will later become effector T cells, causing autoimmunity. Analysis suggests that, having some regulatory T cells can never be advantageous to the host, if activated regulatory T cells suppress effector T cells at any location of the body (global suppression). In contrast, producing some regulatory T cells can be beneficial, if the body is composed of many compartments and regulatory T cells suppress the immune reactions only within the same compartment (localized suppression). This requires regulatory T cells to stop circulating once they are activated by their own target self-antigens.
Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
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