PMID: 7547704May 1, 1995Paper

T cells from unprimed mice respond to the self antigen heme, in a class II restricted manner, at a frequency similar to alloresponses

International Immunology
R M SutherlandY Paterson

Abstract

Heme is a non-protein autoantigen which stimulates potent proliferative responses by T cells from unprimed mice of some strains. These studies show that T cells responding to heme in primary responses are predominantly CD4+, classically I-A restricted, and use diverse TCR characterized by the expression of distinct V, D and J gene segments. These characteristics distinguish heme from superantigens and mitogens which exhibit degenerate MHC restriction and, in the case of superantigens, restricted V gene usage. Using limiting dilution analysis these studies also show that the potent primary response of H-2s mice reflects a high frequency (0.26-0.45%) of heme responsive T cells in the periphery, comparable to the frequency of alloresponsive T cells reported by others in primary mixed lymphocyte reactions. In contrast, heme responsive T cells occur at -10-fold lower frequency in unprimed H-2d mice (0.03%). To determine the antigen recognized by heme reactive T cells, the mass spectra of peptides eluted from the high responder haplotype, I-A(s), were examined. These indicated a markedly different molecular weight distribution of peptides isolated from cells grown in the presence of heme, compared with those from cells grown in its a...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 28, 1998·Immunologic Research·Y Paterson

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