Scott-Browne James P, Matsuda Jennifer L, Mallevaey Thierry, White Janice, Borg Natalie A, McCluskey James, Rossjohn Jamie, Kappler John, Marrack Philippa, Gapin Laurent
Department of Immunology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, Colorado, 80206, USA.
Nat Immunol. 2007 Oct;8(10):1105-13. doi: 10.1038/ni1510. Epub 2007 Sep 9.
Natural killer T cells expressing 'invariant' T cell receptor alpha-chains (TCRalpha chains) containing variable (V) and joining (J) region V(alpha)14-J(alpha)18 (V(alpha)14i) rearrangements recognize both endogenous and microbial glycolipids in the context of CD1d. How cells expressing an invariant TCRalpha chain and a restricted set of TCRbeta chains recognize structurally diverse antigens is not clear. Here we show that a V(alpha)14i TCR recognized many alpha-linked glycolipids by means of a 'hot-spot' of germline-encoded amino acids in complementarity-determining regions 3alpha, 1alpha and 2beta. This hot-spot did not shift during the recognition of structurally distinct antigens, suggesting that the V(alpha)14i TCR functions as a pattern-recognition receptor, conferring on natural killer T cells the ability to sense and respond in an innate way to pathogens displaying antigenic alpha-linked glycolipids.
表达含有可变（V）区和连接（J）区V（α）14-J（α）18（V（α）14i）重排的“恒定”T细胞受体α链（TCRα链）的自然杀伤T细胞，在CD1d的背景下识别内源性和微生物糖脂。表达恒定TCRα链和一组受限的TCRβ链的细胞如何识别结构多样的抗原尚不清楚。在此我们表明，一条V（α）14i TCR通过互补决定区3α、1α和2β中种系编码氨基酸的一个“热点”识别许多α连接的糖脂。在识别结构不同的抗原过程中，这个热点并未发生变化，这表明V（α）14i TCR作为一种模式识别受体发挥作用，赋予自然杀伤T细胞以固有方式感知并响应展示抗原性α连接糖脂的病原体的能力。
