@Article{	  chao05eji,
  author	= {Dennis L. Chao and Miles P. Davenport and Stephanie
		  Forrest and Alan S. Perelson},
  editor	= {2005/11/15 09:00},
  title		= {The effects of thymic selection on the range of {T} cell cross-reactivity},
  journal	= {Eur J Immunol},
  volume	= {35},
  number	= {12},
  pages		= {3452-3459},
  address	= {Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA.},
  month		= {Nov 14},
  year		= {2005},
  abstract = {Based on the results of a computational model of thymic selection, we
propose a mechanism that produces the observed wide range of T cell
cross-reactivity. The model suggests that the cross-reactivity of a T cell
that survives thymic selection is correlated with its affinity for self
peptides. In order to survive thymic selection, a T cell with low affinity
for all self peptides expressed in the thymus must have high affinity for
major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which makes it highly
cross-reactive. A T cell with high affinity for any self peptide must have
low MHC affinity to survive selection, which makes it highly specific for
its cognate peptide. Our model predicts that (1) positive selection
reduces by only 17\% the number of T cells that can detect any given
foreign peptide, even though it eliminates over 95\% of pre-selection
cells; (2) negative selection decreases the average cross-reactivity of
the pre-selection repertoire by fivefold; and (3) T cells responding to
foreign peptides similar to self peptides will have a lower average
cross-reactivity than cells responding to epitopes dissimilar to self.},
   keywords	= {2005/11/15 09:00}
}