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Immune Tolerance definitions

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  • Immune Tolerance
    Ability of the immune system to ignore harmless antigens while targeting harmful ones, preventing attacks on healthy cells.
  • Antigen
    Any molecule recognized by the immune system, which can be classified as harmful or harmless.
  • Autoimmune Disease
    Condition resulting from the immune system attacking the body's own healthy cells due to loss of tolerance.
  • Central Immune Tolerance
    Mechanism in primary lymphoid organs eliminating self-reacting T and B cells before they enter circulation.
  • Peripheral Immune Tolerance
    Mechanism in secondary lymphoid organs further eliminating or inactivating self-reacting immune cells.
  • Negative Selection
    Process eliminating immune cells that react to self or harmless antigens, mainly through apoptosis.
  • Positive Selection
    Process promoting survival of immune cells that appropriately recognize MHC molecules.
  • Self-reacting Cell
    Immune cell capable of attacking the body's own healthy tissues, potentially causing harm.
  • Apoptosis
    Programmed cell death used to remove unwanted or potentially harmful immune cells during development.
  • Primary Lymphoid Organ
    Site such as bone marrow or thymus where immune cells develop and undergo initial selection.
  • Secondary Lymphoid Organ
    Site such as lymph nodes where mature immune cells encounter antigens and undergo further selection.
  • Microbiota
    Community of normal, harmless microorganisms living in and on the body, tolerated by the immune system.
  • Anergy
    State of immune cell unresponsiveness, preventing reaction to harmless or self antigens.
  • MHC
    Molecule on cell surfaces presenting antigens to T cells, crucial for immune cell selection.
  • Pathogen
    Harmful microorganism or agent that triggers an immune response and is targeted for elimination.