Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I: Difference between revisions

By the mid-1980's, there was abundant evidence that the ability of T lymphocytes to recognize antigen is restricted by MHC. However, what this fundamentally important finding meant in terms of molecular mechanism was far from clear. Speculation about possible mechanisms raged for over a decade following Zinkernagel and Doherty's insight. But no experimental evidence available at the time was able to explain the "restriction". As an illustration, Figure 7 in [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1980/benacerraf-lecture.html Benacerraf's Nobel Lecture] shows his thinking in 1980. The figure shows an "Ia molecule" hypothetically "specifically interacting" with an "antigen fragment". Note that although the genetic linkage between Ia (the molecule coded for by immune response genes) and MHC was well established, it was not yet clear that Ia was MHC.