Figure 5
HBZ-1 efficiently recognises both naturally processed and exogenously loaded HBZ 26–34. (A) HBZ-1 detects its cognate epitope with greater sensitivity than Tax-1. CFSE-labelled T2 cells were incubated with a range of concentrations of the HBZ26–34 or Tax11–19 peptides for 1 h. Where indicated, CTL clones HBZ-1 or Tax-1 were added at an E:T ratio of 3:1. After 6 h incubation, cells were fixed, and the absolute number of CFSE+ cells present in each culture condition was determined by flow cytometry. These data are representative of three experiments performed in duplicate. (B) HBZ26–34 is processed and presented to CTLs. BLCL were transiently transfected with either an expression plasmid which encoded HBZ and GFP, or GFP alone. Cells were incubated for 18 h to allow gene expression, peptide processing and presentation, after which HBZ-1 CTLs were added at the indicated ratio. Absolute numbers of GFP-positive cells were quantified by flow cytometry. Results are representative of two experiments performed in triplicate.