Ever since its initial discovery in 1948 by George Snell, major histocompatibility (MHC) complex became the focus of intense research that, due to its diverse roles, gradually extended far beyond transplantation biology. MHC class I molecules are found on virtually all nucleated cells of jawed vertebrates and are the most polymorphic molecules described to date (Cresswell et al. 2005, Solheim 1...

The San Nicolas Island fox (Urocyon littoralis dickeyi) is genetically the most monomorphic sexually reproducing animal population yet reported and has no variation in hypervariable genetic markers. Such low levels of variation imply lower resistance to pathogens, reduced fitness, and problems in distinguishing kin from non-kin. In vertebrates, the MHC contains genes that influence disease resi...

We screened natural chemical compounds which inhibit the expression of newly-synthesized MHC class II molecules on the cell surface. IFN-gamma stimulates Colo 205 adenocarcinoma cells to induce the expression of MHC class I, MHC class II, and ICAM-1 molecules on the cell surface. We show here that concanamycin B inhibits the expression of MHC class II molecules on Colo 205 cells, whereas it doe...

lMhc) was discovered as early as 1936 and its function became known in 1974, a great deal ofconfusion persisted for years in regard to its involvement in various immune responses. I formulated a unified hypothesis of the Mhc, according to which only two classes of Mhc loci exist, class I and class II, both participating in the recognition of foreign antigens by T lymphocytes. This hypothesis al...

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...

In comparison to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism, the impact of allelic sequence variation within T cell receptor (TCR) loci is much less understood. Particular TCR loci have been associated with autoimmunity, but the molecular basis for this phenomenon is undefined. We examined the T cell response to an HLA-B*3501-restricted epitope (HPVGEADYFEY) from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which...

The cause of the high genetic variability in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is not entirely clear. Recently, two reports suggest that female mice prefer to mate with males different from them at the MHC. A model of female choice appropriate for those observations is developed here. Female choice can in fact reduce the observed proportions of homozygotes, maintain genetic polymorphis...