Tolerance to self-antigens in transgenic mice.

Transgenic mice represent a versatile experimental approach for understanding the pathways by which the immune system regulates responsiveness to self-antigens, thereby establishing self-tolerance. The introduction of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor genes with specificity for self-antigens into the germline of mice has enabled the fate of self-reactive lymphocyte precursors to be followed in vivo. The influence of both developmentally regulated, and tissue-specific gene expression on tolerance to self-antigens has been addressed using transgenic mice expressing novel self-antigens under the transcriptional control of heterologous gene promoters. The generation of transgenic mice expressing structurally altered forms of self-antigens has allowed the role of antigen-processing in the induction of tolerance to be examined. Significantly, while these studies have confirmed the classically derived principles of immunological self-tolerance, they also point to the existence of pathways, as yet undefined, by which tolerance to self-antigens may be implemented and maintained.