Abstract
As soon as immunologists began to use red blood cells or blood serum as experimental antigens it was recognized that an animal which could react strongly against red cells from another species gave no response against an injection of its own cells or in general against cells from another individual of the same species. On the simplest common-sense grounds, too, it was obvious that there must be some inbuilt inhibition preventing immune reactions against the body’s own constituents. Ehrlich spoke of ‘horror autotoxicus’ as a general principle to cover this immunological distinction between self and not self. In discussing auto-immune disease we shall be concerned almost wholly with conditions where to some extent these normal inhibitions have broken down. The fact that auto-immune disease is rare in man and exceptionally rare in other animals merely underlines the importance of the inviolability of self-components.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Dresser, D. W., and Mitchison, N. A. ‘The mechanism of immunological paralysis’, Advances in Immunology, 8, 129, ed. F. J. Dixon and H. G. Kunkel. Academic Press, New York and London (1968).
Humphrey, J. H. ‘Immunological unresponsiveness to protein antigens in rabbits. I. The duration of unresponsiveness following a single injection at birth. II. The nature of the subsequent antibody response’, Immunology, 7, 449–462 (1964).
Nossal, G. J. V., and Ada, C. L. Antigens, Lymphoid Cells and the Immune Response. Academic Press, New York and London (1971).
Parish, C. R. ‘Immune response to chemically modified flagellin. I. Induction of antibody tolerance to flagellin by aceto-acetylated derivatives of the protein. II. Evidence for a fundamental relationship between humoral and cell-mediated immunity’, J. exp. Med. 134, 1–21 (1971).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1972 Sir Macfarlane Burnet
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burnet, M. (1972). Tolerance and paralysis. In: Auto-Immunity and Auto-Immune Disease. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8095-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8095-5_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-011-8097-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-8095-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive