Arias, Clemente F.Herrero, Miguel A.Cuesta, José A.Acosta Salmerón, Francisco JavierFernández Arias, Cristina2023-06-182023-06-182015-07-01ESSN: 2054-570310.1098/rsos.150016https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23565Adaptive immune responses depend on the capacity of T cells to target specific antigens. As similar antigens can be expressed by pathogens and host cells, the question naturally arises of how can T cells discriminate friends from foes. In this work, we suggest that T cells tolerate cells whose proliferation rates remain below a permitted threshold. Our proposal relies on well-established facts about T-cell dynamics during acute infections: T-cell populations are elastic (they expand and contract) and they display inertia (contraction is delayed relative to antigen removal). By modelling inertia and elasticity, we show that tolerance to slow-growing populations can emerge as a population-scale feature of T cells. This result suggests a theoretical framework to understand immune tolerance that goes beyond the self versus non-self dichotomy. It also accounts for currently unexplained observations, such as the paradoxical tolerance to slow-growing pathogens or the presence of self-reactive T cells in the organism.engAtribución 3.0 Españajournal articlehttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.150016open access577.2751:57T cellsImmune toleranceNegative selectionImmunodominanceImmune selfInmunologíaBiología molecular (Biología)Biomatemáticas2412 Inmunología2415 Biología Molecular2404 Biomatemáticas