Related Experiment Videos
Impaired invariant chain degradation and antigen presentation and diminished collagen-induced arthritis in cathepsin
T Y Nakagawa1, W H Brissette, P D Lira
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Department of Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98115, USA.
Abstract:
Cathepsins have been implicated in the degradation of proteins destined for the MHC class II processing pathway and in the proteolytic removal of invariant chain (Ii), a critical regulator of MHC class II function. Mice lacking the lysosomal cysteine proteinase cathepsin S (catS) demonstrated a profound inhibition of Ii degradation in professional APC in vivo. A marked variation in the generation of MHC class II-bound Ii fragments and presentation of exogenous proteins was observed between B cells, dendritic cells, and macrophages lacking catS. CatS-deficient mice showed diminished susceptibility to collagen-induced arthritis, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for regulation of immune responsiveness.