Fig. 1.

Factors defining immunogenicity of accidental necrotic cells. Necrotic cells release “eat-me” signals, “find-me” signals, DAMPs, ROS and proinflammatory cytokines which alert professional antigen presenting cells, DCs, cause their migration, maturation and activation. When cellular peptidases are inactivated in necrotic cells, accumulation of proteasomal degradation products, oligopeptides, occur and they form complexes with chaperones. Recruited DCs pick up antigen released from necrotic cells, load it on MHC-I, deliver to antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells, trigger their activation and induce Ag-specific adaptive immune responses