Continuous Dual Resetting of the Immune Repertoire as a Basic Principle of the Immune System Function

Figure 1

Concomitance of the age-related changes in glycosylation and glycation patterns with the age-related repertoire competency expansion and contraction/attrition. Competency for peptide antigens develops early in life and persists throughout life. In contrast, repertoire for carbohydrate antigens develops gradually. It parallels the growth- and maturation-induced glycosylation of self (first ~15 years of life), to which the prominently active thymus during that period of life responds with an output of carbohydrate-responsive repertoire. That repertoire contracts later in life, paralleling increased alterations of self due to potentially pathogenic glycosylation and/or glycation processes. Those alterations may be primarily induced by environmental factors (injury, infection, nutrition-induced metabolic abnormalities, etc.) and may result in repertoire attrition.