T lymphocyte recognition sites on peripheral nerve myelin P0 protein

J Neuroimmunol. 1994 Oct;54(1-2):29-34. doi: 10.1016/0165-5728(94)90227-5.

Abstract

Synthetic peptides corresponding to the extracellular and cytoplasmic domain of bovine (b) or rat (r) peripheral myelin P0 protein were used to establish a total of 50 short-term T cell lines (TCL) from blood of eight healthy subjects. Despite expressing different HLA-DR and HLA-DQ specificities, one or more TCL (range 1-16) specific for peptide bovine P0 19-38 could be isolated from the blood of each donor. Therefore, this peptide covers an immunodominant T cell recognition site in humans. However, when testing seven bP0-19-38-specific TCL derived from blood of two healthy subjects for recognition of the corresponding human P0 sequence, no TCL showed any proliferative response. Bovine P0-19-38 differs in only two amino acid residues from the human peptide. This observation stresses the necessity for using homologous antigens when screening for T cell-mediated autoreactivity to myelin antigens in humans. Unexpectedly, we failed to establish a single P0 peptide-specific TCL from blood of four patients with acute Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), in which P0 is considered a putative target autoantigen. As already suggested by others, this could indicate that T cell responses to P0 do not play a pathogenic role in all GBS cases. Alternatively, in these four patients neuritogenic P0-specific T lymphocytes may have been sequestrated to peripheral nerves.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Cell Line
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Lymphocyte Activation
  • Male
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Myelin P0 Protein
  • Myelin Proteins / immunology*
  • Peptide Fragments / genetics
  • Peptide Fragments / immunology
  • Peripheral Nerves / metabolism*
  • Rats
  • T-Lymphocytes / immunology*

Substances

  • Myelin P0 Protein
  • Myelin Proteins
  • Peptide Fragments