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Optimal number of regulatory T cells
- Source :
-
Journal of Theoretical Biology . Mar2010, Vol. 263 Issue 2, p210-218. 9p. - Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- Abstract: The adaptive immune system of a vertebrate may attack its own body, causing autoimmune diseases. 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 optimal number of regulatory T cells that should be produced. We make the assumptions that some self-reactive immature T cells may fail to interact with their target antigens during the limited training period and later become effector T cells causing autoimmunity, and that regulatory T cells exist that recognize self-antigens. When a regulatory T cell is stimulated by its target self-antigen on an antigen-presenting cell (APC), it stays there and suppresses the activation of other naive T cells on the same APC. Analysis of the benefit and the harm of having regulatory T cells suggests that the optimal number of regulatory T cells depends on the number of self-antigens, the severity of the autoimmunity, the abundance of pathogenic foreign antigens, and the spatial distribution of self-antigens in the body. For multiple types of self-antigen, we discuss the optimal number of regulatory T cells when the self-antigens are localized in different parts of the body and when they are co-localized. We also examine the separate regulation of the abundances of regulatory T cells for different self-antigens, comparing it with the situation in which they are constrained to be equal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Subjects :
- *IMMUNE system
*AUTOIMMUNE diseases
*T cells
*BIOREACTORS
*ANTIGENS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00225193
- Volume :
- 263
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Theoretical Biology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 48264653
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.11.012