Effects of pH and polysaccharides on peptide binding to class II major histocompatibility complex molecules

The binding of immunogenic peptides to class II major histocompatibility molecules was examined at various pH values. We studied binding of peptides containing residues 52-61 from hen egg lysozyme (HEL) to I-Ak on fixed peritoneal macrophages or to solubilized affinity-purified I-Ak. Optimum binding occurred at pH 5.5-6.0 with accelerated kinetics relative to pH 7.4; equilibrium binding was also higher at pH 5.5-6.0 than at 7.4. Similar enhancement at pH 5-6 was observed for the binding of hemoglobin-(64-76) to I-Ek and of ribonuclease-(41-61) to I-Ak. In contrast, the binding of HEL-(34-45) to I-Ak was minimally enhanced at acid pH. Dissociation of cell-associated or purified peptide-I-Ak complexes was minimal between pH 5.5 and 7.4, with increased dissociation only at or below pH 4.0 [HEL-(46-61)] or pH 5.0 [HEL-(34-45)]. Thus, optimum peptide binding occurs at pH values similar to the endosomal environment, where the complexes appear to be formed during antigen processing. In addition, we examined the effect of a number of polysaccharides on the binding of peptide to I-Ak. None of these competed with the HEL peptide 125I-labeled YE52-61 for binding to I-Ak. [3H]Dextran also failed to bind purified I-Ak. Polysaccharides do not appear to bind to class II major histocompatibility complex molecules, which explains the T-cell independence of polysaccharide antigens.