The specificity of alloreactive T cells is determined by MHC polymorphisms which contact the T cell receptor and which influence peptide binding.

The separate contributions to allorecognition of peptide-binding and T cell receptor-contacting residues of an allogeneic HLA-DR molecule were investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. Alloreactive T cell clones were generated from a combination of responder (DR1Dw1,DR4Dw14) and stimulator (DR1Dw1, DR4Dw10) whose DR products differed at only three amino acid positions, two of which are predicted to interact with the T cell receptor (67 and 70), and one with bound peptide (71). Transfected murine DAP.3 cells expressing the wild type and mutated forms of DR4Dw10 in which the codons for residues 70 and/or 71 had been altered towards DR4Dw14 were used to stimulate a panel of anti-DR4Dw10 T cell clones. Substitutions at either position 70 or 71, or the combination of the two, led to loss of recognition by the alloreactive T cell clones. This implies that residues involved in peptide binding and residues involved in interaction with the T cell receptor are important for this panel of alloreactive T cell clones. The specificity of these alloreactive T cells for exposed polymorphic residues on the allogeneic MHC molecule was further demonstrated by the inhibitory effects of synthetic peptides, derived from the alpha-helix of the beta 1 domain of the DR4Dw10 molecule.