Is the cytokine effector response different for HLA-DRß1*0402-restricted T cells?
The effects of HLA-DRß1*0402 on this particular disease checkpoint were addressed by comparing cytokine expression of draining lymph-node T cells from DRß1*0401 and *0402 mice immunized with HCgp-39, following restimulation with native antigen or the relevant pool of immunodominant epitopes [27]. The results were interesting in several respects. While T-cell proliferation was no different for DRß1*0401 and *0402-restricted responses, HCgp-39-specific lymph-node T cells from DRß1*0402-transgenic mice produced significantly less interferon (IFN-) [27]. On the other hand, DRß1*0402 T cells specific for OspA produced abundant IFN-, indicating that DRß1*0402 mice did not have an intrinsic defect of IFN- production. These data provided the first real clues that one of the consequences of DRß1*0402 presenting different peptides was to induce a very different profile of proinflammatory cytokine production. The finding of substantially reduced TNF- levels in DRß1*0402 cultures is also consisten
