How the MHC selects Th1/Th2 immunity

✍ Scribed by Joseph S Murray

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 174 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5699
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-5699(97)01237-1

✦ Synopsis

rotective immunity against many viral, bacterial and parasitic infections appears to involve an early decision by the host immune system, which often leads to the production of two mutually exclusive sets of effector cytokines. Studies in mammals suggest that CD4 ϩ T cells are a prime source of both sets of cytokines, but that different subsets of these cells provide each cytokine pattern . By the nature of their antagonistic effects on the opposite cytokineproducing subset, the relative frequencies of these regulatory T cells can determine whether a given immune response is protective or pathological 1-6 .