How does the neonatal immune system decide which of the millions and millions of microbes it encounters during and soon after birth are commensal and which are pathological?This is not a trivial issue.Excessively vigo...How does the neonatal immune system decide which of the millions and millions of microbes it encounters during and soon after birth are commensal and which are pathological?This is not a trivial issue.Excessively vigorous responses to commensal bacteria cause unnecessary collateral tissue damage and loss of the potentially beneficial microbial flora needed for host metabolism.On the other hand,insufficient immune defense against invading,harmful,microbes is also very problematic,if not lethal.1 While the mechanisms for self-tolerance have been the subject of extensive investigations since the mid-1950s,such is not the case for selective unresponsiveness to commensal microbial flora residing on the skin or the mucosa of the gastrointestinal track.展开更多
文摘How does the neonatal immune system decide which of the millions and millions of microbes it encounters during and soon after birth are commensal and which are pathological?This is not a trivial issue.Excessively vigorous responses to commensal bacteria cause unnecessary collateral tissue damage and loss of the potentially beneficial microbial flora needed for host metabolism.On the other hand,insufficient immune defense against invading,harmful,microbes is also very problematic,if not lethal.1 While the mechanisms for self-tolerance have been the subject of extensive investigations since the mid-1950s,such is not the case for selective unresponsiveness to commensal microbial flora residing on the skin or the mucosa of the gastrointestinal track.
