Phenotypic analysis of antigen-specific T lymphocytes.

Journal article

Identification and characterization of antigen-specific T lymphocytes during the course of an immune response is tedious and indirect. To address this problem, the peptide-major histocompatability complex (MHC) ligand for a given population of T cells was multimerized to make soluble peptide-MHC tetramers. Tetramers of human lymphocyte antigen A2 that were complexed with two different human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-derived peptides or with a peptide derived from influenza A matrix protein bound to peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells in vitro and to T cells from the blood of HIV-infected individuals. In general, tetramer binding correlated well with cytotoxicity assays. This approach should be useful in the analysis of T cells specific for infectious agents, tumors, and autoantigens.

Authors: Altman, J; Moss, P; Goulder, P; Barouch, D; McHeyzer-Williams, MG

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.)
• Volume: 274
• Issue: 5284
• Pages: 94-96
• Publication date: 1996-10-01
• DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5284.94
• EISSN: 1095-9203
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• Language: English
• Keywords: Amino Acid Sequence; Coloring Agents; Base Sequence; Humans; Flow Cytometry; Antigens, Viral; Phenotype; HIV Seropositivity; Viral Matrix Proteins; HLA-A2 Antigen; Epitopes; Cell Line; RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; Molecular Sequence Data; Peptide Fragments; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic; Gene Products, gag