TY - JOUR AU - Pradeu, Thomas AU - Cooper, Edwin PY - 2012 M3 - Hypothesis and Theory TI - The danger theory: 20 years later JO - Frontiers in Immunology UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2012.00287 VL - 3 SN - 1664-3224 N2 - The self–non-self theory has dominated immunology since the 1950s. In the 1990s, Matzinger and her colleagues suggested a new, competing theory, called the “danger theory.” This theory has provoked mixed acclaim: enthusiasm and criticism. Here we assess the danger theory vis-à-vis recent experimental data on innate immunity, transplantation, cancers and tolerance to foreign entities, and try to elucidate more clearly whether danger is well defined. ER -