The danger theory in view of the injury hypothesis: 20 years later

Walter G. Land,Konrad Messmer

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2012.00349

Walter G. Land, Konrad Messmer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2012.00349

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Abstract

The danger theory in view of the injury hypothesis: 20 years later

Highlights

The “danger theory” of Polly Matzinger posed in 1994 (Matzinger, 1994) principally holds that the immune system is far less concerned with “foreign” than with signals that cause dangerous damage, and, that antigen-presenting cells respond to danger signals—most notably from cells undergoing stress and/or injury—to initiate an immune response
The danger theory was emphasized in this journal by Pradeu and Cooper who assessed the topic in view of recently published experimental data (Pradeu and Cooper, 2012)
In the center of this immune system, besides others, we proposed a role for antigen-presenting cells activated by injury and subsequently leading to development of adaptive immunity, that is, cells operating as a bridge between injury and adaptive immunity

Summary

Introduction

The “danger theory” of Polly Matzinger posed in 1994 (Matzinger, 1994) principally holds that the immune system is far less concerned with “foreign” (microorganisms, cells, and molecules) than with signals that cause dangerous damage, and, that antigen-presenting cells respond to danger signals—most notably from cells undergoing stress and/or injury—to initiate an immune response. From these convincing clinical data, we concluded in terms of an “argumentum e contrari” that tissue injury (here: allograft injury) induces immunity (here alloimmunity).

Results

Conclusion