Thousands of potentially antigenic peptides are encoded by an infecting pathogen; however, only a small proportion induce measurable CD8(+) T cell responses. To investigate the factors that control peptide immunogenicity, we have examined the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to a previously undefined epitope ((77)APQPAPENAY(86)) from the BZLF1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). This pept...

The presence of post-translational regulation of MHC class II (MHC II) under physiological conditions has been demonstrated recently in dendritic cells (DCs) that potently function as antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Here, we report that MARCH-I, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, plays a pivotal role in the post-translational regulation of MHC II in B cells. MARCH-I expression was particularly high in B ...

The term HLA refers to the Human Leukocyte Antigen System, which is controlled by genes on the short arm of chromosome six. The HLA loci are part of the genetic region known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The MHC has genes (including HLA) that form part of the normal function of the immune response. The essential role of the HLA antigens lies in the control of self-recognition a...

Polymorphism within the MHC not only affects peptide specificity but also has a critical influence on the T cell repertoire; for example, the CD8 T cell response toward an immunodominant HSV glycoprotein B peptide is more diverse and of higher avidity in H-2(bm8) compared with H-2(b) mice. We have examined the basis for the selection of these distinct antiviral T cell repertoires by comparing t...

The killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) are a family of highly related MHC class I receptors that show extreme genetic polymorphism both within the human population and between closely related primate species, suggestive of rapid evolutionary diversification. Most KIR are expressed in a variegated fashion by the NK population, giving rise to an NK repertoire of specificities for MHC class I. We comp...

A member of a novel family of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genes termed MIC (MHC class I chain-related genes), MICA, has been recently identified near the HLA-B gene on the short arm of human chromosome 6. The predicted amino acid sequence of the MICA chain suggests that it folds similarly to typical class I chains and may have the capacity to bind peptides or other ...

MHC class II (MHC II) proteins are competent signaling molecules on APC. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control generation of their activating signals. Previous reports highlighted a number of factors that could affect the nature and outcome of MHC II signals, including the inability of MHC II ligation on resting vs activated murine B cells to induce mobilization of Ca2+. In...

The human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6p21 is a paradigm for genomics, showing remarkable polymorphism and striking association with immune and non-immune diseases. The complex genomic landscape of the MHC, notably strong linkage disequilibrium, has made resolving causal variants very challenging. A promising approach is to investigate gene expression levels considered ...

Wright, Carola E., F. Haddad, A. X. Qin, P. W. Bodell, and K. M. Baldwin. In vivo regulation of b-MHC gene in rodent heart: role of T3 and evidence for an upstream enhancer. Am. J. Physiol. 276 (Cell Physiol. 45): C883–C891, 1999.—Cardiac b-myosin heavy chain (b-MHC) gene expression is mainly regulated through transcriptional processes. Although these results are based primarily on in vitro cel...