Oiling the wheels of autoimmunity

摘要

Immunology students are taught that the immune system responds to foreign entities while remaining tolerant to 'self structures. This is not strictly true, however, because there are specialized populations of immune cells that are self-reactive. Such cells have the potential to initiate undesirable autoimmune reactions, so their existence raises several questions. What are the origin and structure of the self-antigens to which these cells respond, and how is this potentially dangerous self-recognition regulated? Reporting in Nature Immunology, de Jong et al. identify hydrophobic self-antigens in the skin that are recognized in an unusual manner by a specialized subset of skin-resident immune cells.