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Co-Receptors and Recognition of Self at the Immunological Synapse

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Immunological Synapse

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 340))

Abstract

The co-receptors CD4 and CD8 are important in the activation of T cells primarily because of their ability to interact with the proteins of the MHC enhancing recognition of the MHC–peptide complex by the T cell receptor (TCR). An antigen-presenting cell presents a small number of antigenic peptides on its MHC molecules, in the presence of a much larger number of endogenous, mostly nonstimulatory, peptides. Recent work has demonstrated that these endogenous MHC–peptide complexes have an important role in modulating the sensitivity of the TCR. But the role of the endogenous nonstimulatory MHC–peptide complexes differs in MHC class I and class II-restricted T cells. This chapter discusses the data on the role of CD4 or CD8 co-receptors in T cell activation at the immunological synapse, and the role of non stimulatory MHC–peptide complexes in aiding antigen recognition.

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Acknowledgments

Work from this lab was funded by the NIH (R01GM065230 and AI074074 to N.R.J.G. and K22AI065688 to T.Z.). P.P.Y was supported by T32HL07195 and T.Z by T32AI07290. J.H. was supported by NIH T32AI007244 and the Irving S. Sigal Fellowship. This is TSRI manuscript number 20016.

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Correspondence to Nicholas R. J. Gascoigne .

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Gascoigne, N.R.J., Zal, T., Yachi, P.P., Hoerter, J.A.H. (2010). Co-Receptors and Recognition of Self at the Immunological Synapse. In: Saito, T., Batista, F. (eds) Immunological Synapse. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 340. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03858-7_9

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