Immunotolerance against a foreign antigen transgenically expressed in the lens.

Abstract

The unresponsiveness to HEL in the Tg mice seems to be due to a "central" mechanism of tolerance, mediated by a minuscule amount of HEL in the thymus. Conversely, the much larger amounts of HEL in the peripheral depot, the eyes, play a minor role if any in the tolerogenic process. It is further proposed that a similar mechanism of central tolerance is responsible for the immunotolerance against autologous lens crystallins.