| Literature DB >> 23329514 |
Sebastian Zeissig1,2, Torsten Olszak1, Espen Melum1, Richard S Blumberg1.
Abstract
Natural Killer T (NKT) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes that recognize a wide variety of lipid antigens presented by CD1 molecules. NKT cells exhibit rapid activation after recognition of cognate antigens, secrete abundant amounts of T helper (Th) 1, Th2, and Th17 cytokines within hours of activation and shape the immune response through subsequent activation of dendritic, NK, T and B cells. NKT cells therefore play central roles in antimicrobial and anticancer immunity and in modulation of various autoimmune disorders. Consequently, recent research has focused on the discovery of microbial and self-antigens involved in NKT cell activation. In this chapter, we discuss different strategies for studying antigen recognition by NKT cells including CD1d tetramer-based approaches and in vitro assays characterizing NKT cell activation in response to lipid antigen presentation. While toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists and cytokines such as IL-12 are critical for NKT cell activation in vivo, particularly in the context of microbial infection, methods for detection of TLR- and cytokine-dependent NKT cell activation will not be discussed in this section.Entities:
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Year: 2013 PMID： 23329514 PMCID： PMC3708615 DOI： 10.1007/978-1-62703-218-6_41
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Methods Mol Biol ISSN： 1064-3745