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. 1994 Jan;81(1):132–136.

Separation of thymic education from antigen presenting functions of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules.

E Simpson 1, P J Robinson 1, P Chandler 1, M M Millrain 1, H P Pircher 1, D Brändle 1, P Tomlinson 1, J Antoniou 1, A Mellor 1
PMCID: PMC1422274  PMID: 8132209

Abstract

Participation of transmembrane (TM) and glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored H-2Db molecules in antigen presentation and thymic selection events was investigated using transgenic mice. Both GPI-Db and TM-Db can efficiently present H-Y antigen, influenza and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) peptides to primed cytotoxic, H-2Db-restricted T cells. Transgenic mice expressing GPI-Db, although unable to reject TM-Db skin grafts, nevertheless generate secondary CTL responses which can lyse TM-Db-bearing targets, indicating that GPI-Db mice fail to delete all TM-Db-reactive T cells. Furthermore, double-transgenic mice bearing GPI-Db and a T-cell receptor (TcR) for H-2Db+LCMV do not positively select receptor positive, CD8+CD4- T cells. This paradoxical behaviour of GPI-Db molecules suggests that the structural requirements for antigen presentation and thymic selection by class I molecules are different and may explain why GPI-linked class I molecules, such as Qa-2, do not appear to function as restriction elements in vivo.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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