Expression of murine H-2Kb histocompatibility antigen in cells transformed with cloned H-2 genes.
Mellor AL., Golden L., Weiss E., Bullman H., Hurst J., Simpson E., James RF., Townsend AR., Taylor PM., Schmidt W., Ferluga J., Leben L., Santamaria M., Atfield G., Festenstein H., Flavell RA.
Cosmids containing H-2 histocompatibility antigen genes of the H-2b haplotype have been isolated. One of these genes expresses a 45,000 molecular weight protein, indistinguishable from H-2Kb when introduced into mouse L cells. These H-2Kb transformed L cells can be killed by allospecific anti-H-2Kb cytotoxic T cells. Moreover, when infected with influenza virus, they can be killed by an H-2Kb-restricted, influenza virus-specific cytotoxic T cell line. These results show that expression of the H-2Kb gene product on the L-cell surface is sufficient to make it a target for specific T-cell killing.