|
||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
J. Exp. Med.,
Volume 188, Number 6, September 21, 1998 1203-1208
By

From the * Institute of Molecular Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford, OX3
9DS, United Kingdom; and the Vitiligo is an autoimmune condition characterized by loss of epidermal melanocytes. Using tetrameric complexes of human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I to identify antigen-specific T cells ex vivo, we observed high frequencies of circulating MelanA-specific, A*0201-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (A2-MelanA tetramer+ CTLs) in seven of nine
HLA-A*0201-positive individuals with vitiligo. Isolated A2-MelanA tetramer+ CTLs were
able to lyse A*0201-matched melanoma cells in vitro and their frequency ex vivo correlated
with extent of disease. In contrast, no A2-MelanA tetramer+ CTL could be identified ex vivo
in all four A*0201-negative vitiligo patients or five of six A*0201-positive asymptomatic controls. Finally, we observed that the A2-MelanA tetramer+ CTLs isolated from vitiligo patients
expressed high levels of the skin homing receptor, cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen, which was absent from the CTLs seen in the single A*0201-positive normal control. These
data are consistent with a role of skin-homing autoreactive melanocyte-specific CTLs in causing the destruction of melanocytes seen in autoimmune vitiligo. Lack of homing receptors on
the surface of autoreactive CTLs could be a mechanism to control peripheral tolerance in vivo.
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch, University
of Lausanne, Epalinges, 1011 Switzerland
This article has been cited by other articles:
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|