T cell deletion in high antigen dose therapy of autoimmune encephalomyelitis

J M Critchfield1, M K Racke, J C Zúñiga-Pflücker

  • 1Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|February 25, 1994
PubMed

Encounters with antigen can stimulate T cells to become activated and proliferate, become nonresponsive to antigen, or to die. T cell death was shown to be a physiological response to interleukin-2-stimulated cell cycling and T cell receptor reengagement at high antigen doses. This feedback regulatory mechanism attenuates the immune response by deleting a portion of newly dividing, antigen-reactive T cells. This mechanism deleted autoreactive T cells and abrogated the clinical and pathological signs of autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice after repetitive administration of myelin basic protein.