A human homolog of the mouse CD8 molecule, Lyt-3: genomic sequence and expression

✍ Scribed by Pauline Johnson

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 417 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0093-7711
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00365908

✦ Synopsis

The CD8 antigen is a marker for those cytotoxic T cells that recognize antigen in the context of class I major histocompatibility antigens (MHC) and has now been identified in many species. In rodents the CD8 antigen is a heterodimer of two distinct chains, Lyt-2 and Lyt-3 in the mouse and OX-8 Mr 32,000 and 37,000 chains in the rat. Human CD8 has consistently been described as a homodimer/homomultimer on mature T cells made up of one chain homologous to the Lyt-2 and OX-8 Mr 32,000 chains. This paper identifies a human equivalent of the second rodent CD8 chain (Lyt-3 and OX-8 Mr 37,000 chains) at the genomic level and shows that this gene is transcribed in human thymocytes and in some acute leukemic T-cell lines. The existence of a human Lyt-3 homolog raises the possibility that human CD8, like mouse CD8, may exist as a heterodimer.