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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Use of Single Chain MHC Technology to Investigate Co-agonism in Human CD8+ T Cell Activation
Published on: February 28, 2019
Do T cells need endogenous peptides for activation?
1Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. gascoigne@scripps.edu
Abstract:
T cells are sensitive to small numbers of antigenic peptide-MHC ligands that are distributed among an excess of endogenous peptide-MHC complexes on the surface of antigen-presenting cells. Although there are accumulating data that indicate a role for these endogenous peptide-MHC complexes in T-cell receptor triggering, whether they are necessary, and the nature of their function, is controversial. In this Opinion article, I argue that endogenous peptide-MHC complexes are required for T-cell stimulation and that their mechanism of action differs between CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells.
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