The autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction

✍ Scribed by David Hellmann; John Stobo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 484 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780250201

✦ Synopsis

A major advance in immunology has been the demonstration that recognition of certain self determinants is required for both the initiation and subsequent expression of immunity (reviewed in 1). For example, in order for T cells to be activated by soluble antigens, they must recognize antigenic determinants as well as self determinants displayed by antigen presenting cells. These self determinants (la in rodents, HLA-DR in humans; for convenience, the terms Ia and HLA-DR will be used interchangeably) are products of immune response genes located in the major histocompatibility complex (2,3). On the basis of this finding, it has been hypothesized that the T cell receptor could contain two separate units, one that recognizes antigen and another that recognizes self. Alternatively, the T cell receptor could be a single unit that recognizes a new determinant generated by interactions between antigen and self (43). For either model, it has been postulated that T cell recognition of antigen alone or self la determinants alone is not sufficient to induce T cell activation (2-5). A portion of this postulate has been confirmed by the demonstration that antigen, by itself, cannot activate T cells in the absence of Iabearing, antigen-presenting cells. However, it has been demonstrated in both animals and humans that la-bearing cells can induce T cell proliferation in the absence of added antigen (6-12). This phenomenon From the