Whither T-suppressors: if they didn’t exist would we have to invent them?

Arriving at an understanding of the role of suppressor T-cells (regulatory T-cells, CD4+CD25+) depends on whether their functional repertoire is somatically selected to be anti-Self or anti-Nonself. Immunologists are ambivalent; often publications espousing opposite views share an author. Here the arguments are detailed that the suppressor repertoire is not somatically selected to be anti-Self, but rather it is anti-Nonself. Therefore, suppression cannot regulate the Self–Nonself discrimination; its function is to regulate the magnitude and class of the anti-Nonself effector response.