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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Nov 12.
Published in final edited form as: Immunity. 1998 Feb;8(2):167–175. doi: 10.1016/s1074-7613(00)80469-0

Figure 7. Competition for MHC Class I–Peptide Complexes during CTL Priming.

Figure 7

(Left) A virus-infected APC displays a large number of MHC class I–peptide complexes, indicated by the different numbers on the surface of the cell.

(Center) When CTL precursors specific for epitopes 1 and 2 (T1 and T2) interact with the APC, they aggregate their respective target MHC–peptide complexes at the zones of contact.

(Right) When enough T1 interact with the APC, they reduce the available MHC–peptide 1 complexes to the point where other T1 cells cannot be primed, although cells of other specificities (T2) can still interact productively with the APC.