Fig. 3.
Antigen specificity of AQP-4207–232-specific T cells. 5 × 105 AQP-4207–232-specific T cells were cocultured in triplicates with 1 × 106 thymic antigen-presenting cells in the absence of externally added antigens (0), or in the presence of myelin basic protein (MBP, as irrelevant CNS antigen), AQP-4207–232 representing AQP-4 loop E (E), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG, as second irrelevant CNS antigen) or concanavalin A (ConA, as positive control) (upper panel). In a second set of experiments, 5 × 105 AQP4207–232-specific T cells were cocultured in triplicates with 1 × 106 thymic antigen-presenting cells in the absence of externally added antigen (0), or in the presence of AQP-454–71 representing AQP-4 loop A (a), AQP-4137–157 representing AQP-4 loop C (C), AQP-4207–232 representing AQP-4 loop E (E), AQP-4277–322 representing the C-terminal, intracellular domain of AQP-4 (ic), ovalbumin (OVA, as an irrelevant antigen), or ConA as positive control. T cell activation, as evidenced by incorporation of 3H thymidine, and measured in counts per minute (cpm) was only detected upon exposure to AQP-4207–232 and in response to ConA. Shown here are the mean values of cpm ± standard deviation