TY - JOUR AU - Richards, David M AU - Kyewski, Bruno AU - Feuerer, Markus TI - Re-examining the Nature and Function of Self-Reactive T cells. JO - Trends in immunology VL - 37 IS - 2 SN - 1471-4906 CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] PB - Elsevier Science M1 - DKFZ-2017-05482 SP - 114 - 125 PY - 2016 AB - Recent studies have leveraged MHC tetramer and TCR sequencing approaches towards a more precise characterization of the peripheral T cell repertoire, providing important insight into both the contribution of self-reactive T cells to the overall repertoire and their function. The peripheral T cell repertoire of healthy individuals contains a high frequency of diverse, self-reactive T cells. Furthermore, self-reactive T cells can perform essential beneficial physiological functions. We review these recent findings here, and discuss their implications to the current understanding of peripheral tolerance and the role of self-reactive T cells in autoimmune disease. We outline gaps in understanding, and argue that an important step forward is to revise the definition of self-reactive T cells to incorporate new concepts regarding the nature and physiological functions of different populations of T cells capable of recognizing self-antigens. KW - Autoantigens (NLM Chemicals) KW - Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell (NLM Chemicals) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:26795134 DO - DOI:10.1016/j.it.2015.12.005 UR - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/130403 ER -