Conserved structural features between HLA-DO beta and -DR beta

J Thibodeau1, P M Lavoie, A Samaan

  • 1Immunochimie Analytique, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. thibodj@magellan.umontreal.ca

Molecular Immunology
|December 5, 1998
PubMed

HLA-DO is a non-classical MHC class II molecule presumed to play a specialized role in the antigen processing pathway. We have modeled the HLA-DO beta-chain and found its overall structure compatible with the one of DR beta. Functional studies further highlighted the similarity between these beta-chains of the class II family of proteins. Indeed, a mixed heterodimer composed of the DR alpha and a chimeric DO beta-chains presented bacterial superantigens to T cells and was shown to interact with CD4. The implications of such structural conservation for the in vivo functions of HLA-DO are discussed.

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