Effective vaccine adjuvants must induce expression of major histocompatibility (MHC) class II proteins and the costimulatory molecule CD86 on dendritic cells (DCs). However, some adjuvants elicit production of cytokines resulting in adverse inflammatory consequences. Development of agents that selectively increase MHC class II and CD86 expression without triggering unwanted cytokine production ...

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules are ligands for CD4(+) T cells and are critical for initiating the adaptive immune response. This review is focused on what is currently known about MHC class II organization at the plasma membrane of antigen presenting cells and how this affects antigen presentation to T cells. The organization and diffusion of class II molecules have b...

The initiation of effective immune responses usually requires presentation of Ags by MHC class I and class II molecules. Although most tumors express MHC class I molecules, MHC class II molecule expression is generally limited to specialized APCs. One reason spontaneous tumors may fail to elicit effective immune responses is that tumor Ags are inefficiently presented by APCs, and adequate T cel...

The binding of peptide fragments of antigens to class II MHC proteins is a crucial step in initiating a helper T cell immune response. The discovery of these peptide epitopes is important for understanding the normal immune response and its misregulation in autoimmunity and allergies and also for vaccine design. In spite of their biomedical importance, the high diversity of class II MHC protein...

We have previously reported that contact sensitivity (CS) to dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) in C57BL/6 mice was mediated by MHC class I-restricted CD8+ T cells and down-regulated by MHC class II-restricted CD4+ T cells. In this study, we analyzed the contribution of dendritic cells (DC) in the induction of these two T cell subsets endowed with opposite functions. Hapten-pulsed skin- and bone marro...

We sought to investigate the effects of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection on gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-stimulated expression of cell surface major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules on human fibroblasts. IFN-gamma treatment induced cell surface MHC class II expression on 60 to 86% of uninfected cells, compared to 20 to 30% of cells which had been infected with VZV prior...

Peptides from the lumenal portion of invariant chain (Ii) spanning residues 80-106 (class II-associated Ii peptide [CLIP]) are found in association with several mouse and human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II allelic variants in wild-type and presentation-deficient mutant cells. The ready detection of these complexes suggests that such an intermediate is essential to the MHC cla...