Medical Definition of Immunological tolerance
1.
Specific unresponsiveness to antigen. Self tolerance is a process occurring normally early in life due to suppression of self reactive lymphocyte clones.
Tolerance to foreign antigens can be induced in adult life by exposure to antigens under conditions in which specific clones are suppressed. Note that tolerance is not the same as immunological unresponsiveness, since the latter may be very non-specific as in immunodeficiency states.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Immunological Tolerance
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