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Burton Zweiman, MD; Arnold I. Levinson, MD

JAMA. 1992;268(20):2918-2922.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE NERVOUS system traditionally has been considered an "immunologically privileged" site that is shielded by functional or anatomic barriers from systemic immune responses.¹ However, several lines of experimental and clinical evidence suggest that immune responses can affect and even take place within the nervous system.

The nature of the antigen-presenting cells in the central nervous system (CNS) is controversial. Fontana et al² reported that astrocytes can present antigen-to-antigen reactive T cells in culture in a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted fashion. Furthermore, the astrocyte can be induced to express MHC class II antigens after exposure to interferon gamma or viruses. However, others have not been able to reproduce all of these findings and have marshaled evidence for microglia of bone marrow origin as the important antigen-presenting cells in the CNS. There also is increasing interest in the role of various cytokines in the pathogenesis of neurological diseases. Astrocytes secrete . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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