DANGER THEORY AND DAMAGE-ASSOCIATED MOLECULAR PATTERNS

The immune system of mammals has developed many mechanisms to effectively defend itself against foreign factors, including pathogens. In 1994, Polly Matzinger published a theory of danger, a new view in immunology, describing the response of the immune system to danger, caused by trauma and/or presence of pathogens. This theory sheds a different view on the current belief, that the immune system distinguishes between own (self) and foreign (non-self) structures and reacts only to non-self factors. According to the danger theory, the immune system has the ability to verify "safe" and "dangerous" factors, thus explaining immune reactions caused by tissue damage, referred to as "sterile inflammation", but also occurring during the infection. It is believed that the fundamental elements in danger theory are dangerous molecules i.e. - damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), which are released from damaged or dead tissue and cells. They are also present in physiological conditions and give analogous immune response to these induced by self/ non-self factors. 1. Introduction. 2. Danger theory. 3. Damage-associated molecular patterns. 4. Characteristics of selected damage-associated molecular patterns. 5. Summary