Fig. 7: Landscape of T cell and myeloid cell tolerance breakdown in atherosclerosis.
The immune system harbors a comprehensive system of multilayered checkpoints (see 1–5 in blue) to maintain tolerance in WT RLNs under physiological conditions to avoid autoimmune injury of self: (1) Maintenance of quiescence of naïve T cells; (2) support of effector/memory T cell functions; (3) immunosuppression by Treg cells; (4) antigen presentation to T cells; (5) control of tissue T cell homeostasis. Checkpoints may be compromised at multiple levels (see 1–5 in red) in a tissue-specific manner in mouse advanced atherosclerosis as follows: Apoe−/− RLNs may be compromised at checkpoint 2; ATLOs may be compromised at checkpoints 1, 2, 3 and 4; plaques may be compromised at all five checkpoints.
