Revisiting the Mechanisms of CNS Immune Privilege

Overview

Journal Trends Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2015 Oct 4

PMID 26431936

Citations 326

Authors

Antoine Louveau

Tajie H Harris

Jonathan Kipnis

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Whereas the study of the interactions between the immune system and the central nervous system (CNS) has often focused on pathological conditions, the importance of neuroimmune communication in CNS homeostasis and function has become clear over that last two decades. Here we discuss the progression of our understanding of the interaction between the peripheral immune system and the CNS. We examine the notion of immune privilege of the CNS in light of both earlier findings and recent studies revealing a functional meningeal lymphatic system that drains cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to the deep cervical lymph nodes, and consider the implications of a revised perspective on the immune privilege of the CNS on the etiology and pathology of different neurological disorders.

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