title: Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Dextramers: New Tools for the Detection of antigen-Specific, CD4 T Cells in Basic and Clinical Research.
abstract: The advent of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) tetramer technology has been a major contribution to T cell immunology, because tetramer reagents permit detection of antigen-specific T cells at the single-cell level in heterogeneous populations by flow cytometry. However, unlike MHC class I tetramers, the utility of MHC class II tetramers has been less frequently reported. MHC class II tetramers can be used successfully to enumerate the frequencies of antigen-specific CD4 T cells in cells activated in vitro, but their use for ex vivo analyses continues to be a problem, due in part to their activation dependency for binding with T cells. To circumvent this problem, we recently reported the creation of a new generation of reagents called MHC class II dextramers, which were found to be superior to their counterparts. In this review, we discuss the utility of class II dextramers vis-a-vis tetramers, with respect to their specificity and sensitivity, including potential applications and limitations.
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Massilamany
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Krishnan
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002469:Cell Separation; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D012106:Research; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D037182:T-Cell Antigen Receptor Specificity
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II