Quantitation of H-2 antigen expression on hepatocytes and macrophages: evidence for an influence by strain background.

The surface concentration of H-2 complex antigens was measured by a quantitative immunoferritin labelling technique on hepatocytes and macrophages from five mouse strains with three haplotypes. The concentration of H-2 molecules was similar on macrophages from three B10 congenic strains, and the same similarity was observed on hepatocytes from the three strains. With both hepatocytes and macrophages, however, the surface concentration of H-2d molecules on BALB/c cells was about twice that on B10.D2 cells, and that of H-2k molecules on C3H/HeJ cells was about twice what we observed on B10.BR/SgSn cells. These measurements suggest a regulation of the surface concentration of H-2 complex antigens by a locus outside the MHC.