B and T Cells

Neuroimmunology was an unforeseen discipline with impediments that, at times, forbade the use of immunology and neurology in the same paragraph much less the unconceivable emergence into its own discipline. However, once the notion of the brain as an immunologically privileged site was abandoned, the shared components and characteristics became clearer. Indeed, the immune and nervous systems share several associated properties as both share a functional basis of self and defense, both perform surveillance functions, both have a cellular basis of memory, and both have shared molecular components that, in many cases, function differentially in opposing compartments but seemingly maintain balance within each compartment under nonpathological conditions. This chapter is tasked with the overview of the adaptive immune system with its two primary lineages of effectors, B cells and T cells, in the context of development, interactions with the innate immune arm, different immune effector functions after activation by the innate system, and effector function in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Finally, a novel in vivo small animal platform is described in which the development and effector functions of the human immune system can be evaluated and the interactions of each immune arm with the central and peripheral nervous systems can be assessed for the missing pieces of the puzzle to form the entire picture of central nervous system immunity.