T-cell receptor and autoimmune disease

Since the genes encoding the TCR have been cloned, their structure, organization, pattern of rearrangement, diversification and expression in ontogeny have been classified. However, there are still many important questions to be addressed, such as the nature of thymic education, tolerance, the mechanism of MHC-restricted antigen recognition and the relation between TCR repertoire and autoimmunity. In the future, new approaches to study these issues, such as transgenic mice, X-ray crystallography, and severe combined immune deficiency mice reconstituted with human hematopoietic cells will lead to a more profound understanding of these questions. This will hopefully allow us to manipulate the immune response in different and more effective ways than are currently available.