The Journal of Experimental Medicine
Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 136K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JEM
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Liu, C.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Marrack, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Liu, C.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Marrack, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/1997/11/1441/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 186, Number 9, November 3, 1997 1441-1450

Article

Selection of Antigen-specific T Cells by a Single IEk Peptide Combination

Chih-Pin Liu*,{ddagger}, David Parker, John Kappler*,{ddagger},||, and Philippa Marrack*,{ddagger},§,||

From the * Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the {ddagger} Department of Medicine, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, Colorado 80206; the § Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Genetics and the || Department of Immunology and Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80206; and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon 97221

In normal mice, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins are bound to many different peptides, derived from the proteins of their host. In the thymus, the diversity of this collection of MHC + peptide ligands allows thymocytes bearing many different T cell receptors (TCRs) to mature by low avidity reactions between the MHC + peptide ligands and the thymocyte TCRs. To investigate this problem, the selection of T cells specific for a well-studied combination of MHC + peptide, IEk + moth cytochrome c 88–103 (MCC), was investigated. Mice were created that expressed IEk bound to a single peptide, either a variant of MCC in which a critical TCR contact residue, 99K, was changed to A, or a variant of a mouse hemoglobin 64–76 (Hb) peptide, 72A. IEk bound to the MCC variant caused the clonal deletion of some T cells specific for the IEk + MCC ligand; nevertheless, it also positively selected many T cells that could react with this ligand. Some of the TCRs on the selected T cells were related to those on cells from normal mice and some were not. IEk bound to the Hb variant, on the other hand, did not select any T cells which could react with IEk + MCC. These results demonstrate that although positive selection is a partially degenerate event, the sequence of the peptide involved in positive selection controls the selected repertoire.

Address correspondence to Dr. Chih-Pin Liu, Department of Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Goodman Bldg., Fifth floor, 1400 Jackson St., Denver, CO 80206. Phone: 303-398-1322; FAX: 303-398-1396.

1 Abbreviations used in this paper: Hb, mouse hemoglobin 64-76; Ii, invariant chain; MCC, moth cytochrome c peptide 88–103; wt, wild-type.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search
TABLE OF CONTENTS