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Decrypting the spectrum of antigen‐specific T‐cell responses: the avidity repertoire of MBP‐specific T‐cells
Author(s) -
Mazzanti B.,
Hemmer B.,
Traggiai E.,
Ballerini C.,
McFarland H.F.,
Massacesi L.,
Martin R.,
Vergelli M.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.72
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1097-4547
pISSN - 0360-4012
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4547(20000101)59:1<86::aid-jnr10>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - antigen , avidity , myelin basic protein , immunology , biology , t cell , myelin , microbiology and biotechnology , immune system , central nervous system , neuroscience
Myelin basic protein (MBP) is a well‐characterized autoantigen potentially involved in the pathogenesis of the most common human demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), multiple sclerosis (MS). It is known that MBP‐specific T‐cell responses differ widely among different individuals and also within a single donor in terms of fine specificity and functional characteristics including the avidity in antigen recognition. In this report, we demonstrate that the in vitro selection of MBP‐reactive T‐cell repertoire is strictly dependent upon the antigen dose used in the primary cultures. MBP‐specific T‐cell lines (TCLs) were generated from MS patients and healthy donors using different antigen concentration in cultures (0.1 to 50 μg/ml). In both MS patients and controls, the number of obtained T‐cell lines was affected by the antigen concentration. In addition, low and high antigen concentrations selected in vitro different T‐cell populations in terms of peptide specificity patterns and different functional avidities in antigen recognition. Low concentrations of MBP in the primary cultures yielded a small number of TCLs recognizing the specific antigen with higher avidity whereas high antigen concentrations allowed the in vitro expansion of a higher numbers of T‐cells recognizing MBP with lower avidity. The use of different antigen concentrations in the primary cultures can be applied as a simple experimental system to investigate the overall avidity repertoire of antigen‐specific T‐cell response in humans. J. Neurosci. Res. 59:86–93, 2000 © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.