T-cell function in newborn mice and humans

✍ Scribed by Becky Adkins

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 164 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5699
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-5699(99)01473-5

✦ Synopsis

ollowing MedawarÕs landmark experiments in the mouse in the early 1950s (Ref. 1), it became generally accepted that neonatal T cells are uniquely susceptible to tolerance induction. Although direct evidence was difficult to obtain, the idea that human fetuses and neonates were particularly susceptible to tolerance induction was also favored. This was thought to be particularly important for the neonatal period when tolerance to self-antigens must be established. Because neonates are readily tolerized and adults are not, it had been widely assumed that neonatal T cells differ qualitatively from adult T cells. However, recent findings have led to the proposal that the problem with neonatal T cells is strictly quantitative Ð that is, neonates contain far fewer T cells than adults but those T cells that are present are similar, if not identical, to mature adult T cells. Is this idea truly justified?