Quantitation of antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses.
Enumeration of antigen-specific CD8+ T-cells has traditionally been largely dependent on the use of techniques that require a period of expansion in vitro. However the recent emergence of methods that can be used directly ex vivo to quantify antigen-specific CD8+ T cells has prompted a re-evaluation of the magnitude of viral-specific cellular immune responses. The purpose of this review is to describe the commonly used methods currently available to quantify and characterise antigen-specific T-cells and then to focus in more detail on the use of tetrameric complexes of HLA/peptide to study the cellular immune response.
Ogg
G S
GS
Molecular Immunology, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, UK. gogg@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk
McMichael
A J
AJ
D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans