HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kakimi, K. Articles by Ishimoto, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kakimi, K. Articles by Ishimoto, A. Agricola Articles by Kakimi, K. Articles by Ishimoto, A.

Hepatitis C virus core region: helper T cell epitopes recognized by BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice

Kazuhiro Kakimi^1,4,

Kagemasa Kuribayashi^2,

¹ Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606
² Institute for Immunology
³ Department of Gastroenterological Endoscopy
and⁴ First Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606
⁵ Yokohama Research Center, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Aobaku, Yokohama 227
and⁶ Department of Virology II, National Institute of Health, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162, Japan

In this study, we characterized the B cell and T cell responses to the hydrophilic portion of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein in two strains of mice and identified the respective antigen determinants. BALB/c (H-2^d) and C57BL/6 (B6:H-2^b) mice were immunized by a subcutaneous injection of recombinant HCV core protein together with Freund's complete adjuvant. The level of antibody production, as determined by ELISA, was consistently higher in BALB/c than in B6 mice. However, antibodies in sera from each strain bound to the N-terminal region of the core protein within amino acids 1 to 28 (MSTNPKPQRKIKRNTNRRPQDVKFPGGG), according to an experiment using non-overlapping peptides that covered the hydrophilic portion of HCV core protein. The T cell responses were also higher in BALB/c than in B6 mice with respect to the proliferative responses of the draining lymph node cells in vitro. By limiting dilution cultures of the draining lymph node cells in vitro repetitively stimulated with recombinant core protein, T cell clones were established from both strains of mice and characterized. The surface markers of these clones were Thy-1.2⁺, CD3⁺, TCR⁺, CD4⁺ and CD8^-. The proliferative responses were inhibited in the presence of anti-CD4 or anti-MHC class II monoclonal antibodies. The T cell lines in BALB/c mice recognized an epitope in HCV core at amino acids 72 to 91 (EGRAWAQPGYPWPLYGNEGL). The T cell lines in B6 mice recognized an epitope at amino acids 55 to 74 (RPQPRGRRQPIPKARQPEGR). Thus, mice with different MHC haplotypes recognized different non-overlapping T cell antigenic determinants of HCV core proteins.

^* Author for correspondence. Present address: Laboratory of Gene Analysis, Department of Viral Oncology, Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Sakyo 606, Japan. Fax +81 75 751 3995. e-mail kakimi@doc.medic.mie-u.ac.jp

Present address: Department of Bioregulation, Faculty of Medicine, Mie University. Edobashi, Tsu 514, Japan.

Received 31 October 1994; accepted 3 January 1995.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				X. Chen, J. J. Oppenheim, and O. M. Z. Howard BALB/c mice have more CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells and show greater susceptibility to suppression of their CD4+CD25- responder T cells than C57BL/6 mice J. Leukoc. Biol., July 1, 2005; 78(1): 114 - 121. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K Hiranuma, S Tamaki, Y Nishimura, S Kusuki, M Isogawa, G Kim, M Kaito, K Kuribayashi, Y Adachi, and Y Yasutomi Helper T cell determinant peptide contributes to induction of cellular immune responses by peptide vaccines against hepatitis C virus J. Gen. Virol., January 1, 1999; 80(1): 187 - 193. [Abstract]