The ability of the immune system to control the spread of the pathogen, without causing pathology is crucial. For this to occur exquisite control must be exercised including localized inflammation coupled with systemic 'anergy'. Pathology hinges on a delicate balance between appropriate and inappropriate induction of inflammatory mediators.
             IL-2 receptor signalling is important in maintaining responsiveness.(26 Powel JD)
             In vivo anergic T cells appear to remain for prolonged periods of time. (51,52) It appears that they persist for at least one month. (61,62)
             Jenkin's experiment, using adoptive transfer, observed recovery of reactivity with time. However, unresponsiveness was maintained if the antigen was injected at weekly intervals.
             It has been postulated that T cell anergy, a state of long-lasting, partial or total unresponsiveness is induced by partial activation. It is the inability of T cells to produce or respond to proliferative signals that may be important in reducing the immune mediated damage to the host. By not responding to proliferative signals, anergic T cells do not produce more profinflammatory cytokines and, therefore, there will be no further exacerbation of the known immune mediated pathology. In this study we observed that CD4+ T cell anergy is depressed, although still present, in the absence of CD4+CD25+ T cells. This may correlate to implication of CD4+CD25+ T cells in the development of T cell anergy during murine malarial infection. This may be attributed to ...
             CD4+CD25+ T cells may suppress harmful immunopathological responses to self or foreign antigens. These cells show a partial anergic phenotype in that they proliferate poorly upon TCR stimulation in vitro and that their growth is dependent on exogenous IL-2. (30Papiernik) Although the activation of CD4+CD25+ T cells is antigen specific, once activated, these cells inhibit CD4+ cells in an antigen independent manner. (25,93...