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Updated: Jul 27, 2026

Visualizing Antigen Specific CD4+ T Cells using MHC Class II Tetramers
Published on: March 6, 2009
[Discovery of MHC restriction in antigen recognition of T cells]
Gong-tao Lan1, Li-ping Zhu, Wei Zhang
1Department of Medicine, PUMC, Beijing 100730, China.
Abstract:
T cell can only recognize specific antigenic peptide-MHC complex on antigen-presenting cell. This is MHC restriction in antigen recognition of T cell. This phenomenon was discovered by an Austrian scientist Peter. C. Doherty and a Swedish scientist Rolf. M. Zinkernagel by chance. Then, in order to explain the phenomenon, they proposed two hypotheses: dual receptor and modified self. In the during following 20 years numbers of scientists spent great amount of time in the study of the phenomenon. The process of cell-mediated immune response becomes clear, which greatly promotes the advancing of immunology and many related disciplines.
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