IUBio

Recognition of self vs non-self by macrophages?

collins%xtal220 at HARVARD.HARVARD.EDU collins%xtal220 at HARVARD.HARVARD.EDU
Mon Nov 7 11:24:32 EST 1994


> teitelba at aecom.yu.edu (Rachel Teitelbaum) wrote.....
>Do you or anyone else know though if the signals that upregulate B7
>expression will be present if self-peptide is in the groove?  But then I
>guess that comes back to the question of how the macrophage differentiates
>between self and non-self.  Any thoughts?

	I believe that B7 would not be upregulated when self-
peptide is present in the MHC, because there would be no primary signal. This
would be regardless of the presenting cell type, macrophages or whatever. 
There would be no recognition by a TCR of a MHC/self-peptide because that 
population of T cells that would recognize the self-peptide has been 
anergized or deleted from the repetoire during development in the thymus.
I think your question has two phases, 1. How do macrophages recognize mutated
or foreign material? and 2. How is the signal propogated to the humoral 
response system? The first question, I can't answer. The second would be 
through the normal signal pathways through MHC antigens. I don't believe 
anyone has shown that self-peptides are recognized by TCR but then the 
differentiation of self vs non-self takes place at the level of second 
messengers. 
	I would be interested to hear of such an experiment.




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