The detection of human minor alloantigens following restriction determinant implantation.

The recognition of minor alloantigens by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) serves as a model for the recognition of tumor and viral antigens. Progress in this area has been limited, however, since CTL recognize minor alloantigens only in association with self-class I antigens. Thus, experiments designed to study minor alloantigens are limited to target cells that share HLA determinants with the CTL. We raised CTL lines that recognized human minor alloantigens. In order to circumvent the problem that only target cells which expressed the appropriate restriction determinants could be tested for minor antigens. Sendai virus mediated fusion was used to integrate appropriate HLA antigens into cells that did not express them naturally. The target cells were then tested in CML for their expression of minor antigens. The results of experiments demonstrated that, following class I implantation, the detection of minor antigens on certain restriction determinant negative cells was possible. Furthermore, the restriction determinant was able to associate with the minor antigen in a manner appropriate for recognition by the T-cell receptor.