Molecular biology and immunology for clinicians, 14: Antigen presenting cells--Class II

Pivotal to immunity and auto-immunity is the ability of the human immune response to make antigen-specific responses, both cellular and humoral. T- and B-cells contain within themselves the ability to recognize and react to specific antigens, but they must be made aware of the presence of their target in the surrounding environment to respond. Turns out this part of the education of T-cells (not B-cells, which are activated by specific antigens in a different manner) is provided by a large number of cells, all coming under the umbrella term: antigen-presenting cells. Understanding how these cells take up molecules from the environment or acquire protein molecules from the intracellular milieu, manipulate them, and then offer the modified material to engage potentially responding cells in an immunological educational conversation is crucial to understanding normal immune function and, of course, auto-immunity and other forms of immune dysregulation. In the broadest of terms, there are two sources of proteins: endogenous (produced within the cell) and exogenous (produced outside of the cell), and there are two not entirely mutually exclusive pathways involved in antigen processing and presentation. To decrease confusion between these two separate pathways antigens, I will proceed with a description of the latter in this paper and cover the former in the next paper in this series. So, now on to antigen processing and presentation of proteins.