Effect of MHC class I diversification on influenza epitope-specific CD8 T cell precursor frequency and subsequent effector function

Abstract

Earlier studies of influenza-specific CD8+ T cell immunodominance hierarchies indicated that expression of the H2Kk MHC class I allele greatly diminishes responses to the H2Db-restriced DbPA224 epitope (acid polymerase, residues 224-233 complexed with H2Db). The results suggested that the presence of H2Kk during thymic differentiation led to the deletion of a prominent Vβ7+ subset of DbPA224-specific TCRs. The more recent definition of DbPA224-specific TCR CDR3β repertoires in H2b mice provides a new baseline for looking again at this possible H2Kk effect on DbPA224-specific TCR selection. We found that immune responses to several H2Db- and H2Kb-restricted influenza epitopes were indeed dimi..