Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Sep 17:3:287.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2012.00287. eCollection 2012.

The danger theory: 20 years later

Thomas Pradeu  1 , Edwin L Cooper
Affiliations

The danger theory: 20 years later

Thomas Pradeu et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

The self-non-self theory has dominated immunology since the 1950s. In the 1990s, Matzinger and her colleagues suggested a new, competing theory, called the "danger theory." This theory has provoked mixed acclaim: enthusiasm and criticism. Here we assess the danger theory vis-à-vis recent experimental data on innate immunity, transplantation, cancers and tolerance to foreign entities, and try to elucidate more clearly whether danger is well defined.

Keywords: cancer; danger; danger signals; immunity; inflammation; innate immunity; tolerance; transplantation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The principle of the triggering of an immune response according to the danger (or “damage”) theory.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ahrens S., Zelenay S., Sancho D., Hanè P., Kjær S., Feest C., Fletcher G., Durkin C., Postigo A., Skehel M., Batista F., Thompson B., Way M., Reis e Sousa C., Schulz O. (2012). F-Actin is an evolutionarily conserved damage-associated molecular pattern recognized by DNGR-1, a receptor for dead cells. Immunity 36, 635–645 10.1016/j.immuni.2012.03.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson C. C., Matzinger P. (2000a). Danger, the view from the bottom of the cliff. Semin. Immunol. 12, 231–238 10.1006/smim.2000.0236 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson C. C., Matzinger P. (2000b). Round 2. Semin. Immunol. 12, 277–291 10.1006/smim.2000.0241 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson C. C., Matzinger P. (2000c). Round 3. Semin. Immunol. 12, 331–341 10.1006/smim.2000.0251 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Asea A., Kraeft S. K., Kurt-Jones E. A., Stevenson M. A., Chen L. B., Finberg R. W., Koo G. C., Calderwood S. K. (2000). HSP70 stimulates cytokine production through a CD14-dependant pathway, demonstrating its dual role as a chaperone and cytokine. Nat. Med. 6, 435–442 10.1038/74697 - DOI - PubMed