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Peptide:MHC Tetramer-based Enrichment of Epitope-specific T cells
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The repertoire of T cells shaped by a single MHC/peptide ligand

L Ignatowicz1, J Kappler, P Marrack

  • 1Department of Medicine, National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, 80206, USA.

Cell
|February 23, 1996
PubMed

Although the thymus produces many immature thymocytes, few of these cells mature. Positive selection has been thought to limit thymocyte development. In thymuses expressing a single MHC/peptide combination, however, surprisingly large numbers of thymocytes are selected to mature. Many of these react with the selecting MHC, bound to other self-peptides. Therefore, the number of thymocytes that mature is limited by the fact that positively selected cells die because they react too well with MHC bound to self-peptides that are not identical to those involved in positive selection. T cells that mature in thymuses expressing a single MHC/peptide ligand react frequently with foreign MHC, suggesting that the repertoire of alpha beta receptors may be more biased toward reaction with MHC than was previously thought.

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