Abstract
The development of peptide–major histocompatibility complex tetramers has enabled direct characterization and enumeration of antigen-specific T cells. However, the weaker interaction between class II tetramers and CD4+ T cells increases the challenge of using tetramers to analyze CD4+ T cell responses. Here, we provide an optimized class II tetramer staining protocol with a magnetic-bead enrichment strategy for the detection and functional analyses of human antigen-specific CD4+ T cells. This approach enables direct sampling of lymphocytes that recognize specific peptide–MHC complexes, including rare pathogen-specific CD4+ T cells from unexposed individuals.
Key words
- CD4+ T cells
- MHC class II
- Tetramers
- Antigen-specific T cells
- Immune repertoire
- T cell enrichment
- Human immune response
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Pan, YG., Su, L.F. (2022). Identification of Human Antigen-Specific T Cells Using Class II MHC Tetramer Staining and Enrichment. In: Huang, H., Davis, M.M. (eds) T-Cell Repertoire Characterization. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2574. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2712-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2712-9_3
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Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2711-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2712-9
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