Immune tolerance

Immune tolerance or immunological tolerance describes a state of unresponsiveness of the immune system to substances or tissue that have the capacity to elicit an immune response. It contrasts with conventional immune-mediated elimination of foreign antigens (see Immune response). Tolerance is classified into central tolerance or peripheral tolerance depending on where the state is originally induced—in the thymus and bone marrow (central) or in other tissues and lymph nodes (peripheral). The mechanisms by which these forms of tolerance are established are distinct, but the resulting effect is similar.