[Clonal deletion and clonal anergy as the mechanism of self-tolerance induction].

In the immune system, it is most important to discriminate self from nonself and to acquire and maintain the unresponsiveness to self antigens, self-tolerance. Recently, the transgenic animals provides the evidence of the mechanism of self-tolerance induction. Self-tolerance is established mainly by elimination, clonal deletion, and functional inactivation, clonal energy, of the autoreactive T cells and B cells. Clonal deletion and clonal anergy are involved not only in the central tolerance, in thymus or bone marrow, but also in the peripheral tolerance. The failure of self-tolerance involves the induction of auto-immune disease.