‘Compare and contrast the development and differentiation of T cells and B cells, drawing out the implications for self-non-self discrimination’

‘A fundamental requirement of the immune system is that it destroy, eliminate or inactivate all foreign viruses, bacteria and parasites without destroying self-cells or molecules’ (Lydyard 2000). This is carried out by B and T cells, which are able to distinguish what is ‘foreign’ (i.e. non self) from what is self. They are responsible for the adaptive immune response and have developed a number of different mechanisms in the central and peripheral lymphoid organs that underlie the basis for self-non-self discrimination. B and T cells are derived from the lymphoid progenitor cell and possess similar characteristics such as a large nucleus and small amount of cytoplasm, however their development processes differ in a number of important ways, the most notable being that B cells develop in the bone marrow whereas T cells migrate from the bone marrow to differentiate in the thymus. Once at the correct site both cell types undergo gene rearrangements to produce a unique antigen rec...