Association between the human thymic differentiation antigens T6 and T8.

The human T lymphocyte cell surface antigen T8 has been found to be associated on thymocytes with a protein of 46 kDa through disulfide bridges. Analysis by isoelectric focusing, and of peptides obtained by limited proteolysis and chemical cleavage demonstrated that this 46-kDa protein was the cell surface antigen T6, which is expressed on cortical thymocytes. The findings are discussed in the context of the importance of the T8 and T6 molecules in thymic differentiation.