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Science 15 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5597, pp. 1348 - 1349
DOI: 10.1126/science.1079323
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Perspectives

IMMUNOLOGY:
Exposing Thy Self

Pamela S. Ohashi

It is well established that clonal deletion of self-reactive T cells is the principal mechanism for inducing tolerance in the thymus. This process is believed to be one mechanism that prevents the development of autoimmunity. In her Perspective, Ohashi discusses new work (Anderson et al.) that reveals an extra facet of clonal deletion. The transcription factor aire promotes the expression by mouse thymic epithelial cells of tissue-specific proteins not normally expressed in the thymus, thus ensuring the deletion of T cells that are reactive to these proteins.

The author is in the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology, Ontario Cancer Institute, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2M9, Canada. E-mail: pohashi{at}uhnres.utoronto.ca

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Diversity of the Immune Repertoire and Immunoregulation.
R. S. Schwartz (2003)
N. Engl. J. Med. 348, 1017-1026
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)