Figure 1.

TCV through autoreactive CD4+ T cells increased the expression of Qa-1. (A) Fx1A was generated from Sprague–Dawley rat kidneys as previously described. Lewis rats were immunized with Fx1A as the experimental group and CFA as the control group. CD4+ T cells were purified from draining LNs of the two groups of rats 10 days after footpad injection of Fx1A or CFA and cultured with conA for 40 hours. The CD4+ T cells from Fx1A- and CFA-immunized rats were irradiated at 30 Gy and injected into two groups of Lewis rats through the tail vein (5×10⁶ cells/rat). Fx1A was injected into each of their hind footpads 3 weeks after TCV. (B and C) CD4+ T cells were isolated from draining LNs from both (B) CFA- and (C) Fx1A-immunized rats and cultured on PBS or conA for 40 hours. Qa-1 expression on CD4+ T cells was increased from 13% (PBS) to 18% (conA) for CFA-immunized rats and 11% to 27% for Fx1A-immunized rats after conA stimulation (P<0.05, n=6).