Todd J A, Acha-Orbea H, Bell J I, Chao N, Fronek Z, Jacob C O, McDermott M, Sinha A A, Timmerman L, Steinman L
Department of Medical Microbiology, Stanford University, CA 94305.
Science. 1988 May 20;240(4855):1003-9. doi: 10.1126/science.3368786.
Class II major histocompatibility (MHC) molecules have an immunoregulatory role. These cell-surface glycoproteins present fragments of protein antigens (or peptides) to thymus-derived lymphocytes (T cells). Nucleotide sequence polymorphism in the genes that encode the class II MHC products determines the specificity of the immune response and is correlated with the development of autoimmune diseases. This study identifies certain class II polymorphic amino acid residues that are strongly associated with susceptibility to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and pemphigus vulgaris. These findings implicate particular class II MHC isotypes in susceptibility to each disease and suggest new prophylactic and therapeutic strategies.
II类主要组织相容性（MHC）分子具有免疫调节作用。这些细胞表面糖蛋白将蛋白质抗原（或肽）片段呈递给胸腺来源的淋巴细胞（T细胞）。编码II类MHC产物的基因中的核苷酸序列多态性决定了免疫反应的特异性，并与自身免疫性疾病的发生相关。本研究确定了某些与胰岛素依赖型糖尿病、类风湿性关节炎和寻常型天疱疮易感性密切相关的II类多态性氨基酸残基。这些发现表明特定的II类MHC同种型与每种疾病的易感性有关，并提出了新的预防和治疗策略。
