HLA-DM - AN IN-VIVO FACILITATOR OF MHC CLASS-II PEPTIDE LOADING

Initiation of cell-mediated immune responses requires processing of intracellular pathogens into peptide fragments and presentation of these fragments to effector T cells. In the past few years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying antigen processing and presentation. In particular, recent work has led to an understanding of the function of HLA-DM (DM), a key player in antigen presentation, whose importance was first appreciated only 1 year ago.