autophagy §

A process in which portions of the cytoplasm are taken into autophagosomes. Some of the resulting peptides can be bound to MHC class II (even though they are self-peptides). In DCs and macrophages this can occur in the absence of activation, so that immature DCs may express self-peptides in a tolerogenic context, rather than inducing a t-cell response, to self-antigens.