Bim-mediated apoptosis is not necessary for thymic negative selection to ubiquitous self-antigens.

T cell education in the thymus is critical for establishing a functional, yet self-tolerant, T cell repertoire. Negative selection is a key process in enforcing self-tolerance. There are many questions that surround the mechanism of negative selection, but it is currently held that apoptosis initiated by Bim and/or Nur77 is critical for negative selection.