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Emil R. Unanue, MD

JAMA. 1995;274(13):1071-1073.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE IMMUNE RESPONSE to protein antigens operates through lymphocytes (the T cells) that recognize products of digestion of the protein antigens. It took years of efforts by many investigators studying different aspects of immunity to reach this conclusion. The initial thinking was that the immune response was directed to antigen not altered by normal catabolism. This holds true for responses of B cells but is definitely not the case for T cells. The CD4 T cells are the essential regulatory cells that influence the function of most leukocytes. Their antigen-specific receptors recognize only protein catabolites that are bound to histocompatibility molecules.

ANTIGEN PRESENTATION BY MACROPHAGES

Through our initial studies on macrophage biology, consisting of a rather simple series of in vivo experiments, it became apparent that feeding protein antigens to macrophages resulted in a consistent and marked improvement in the immune response to the protein.¹ In other words, the lymphocytes . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Center for Immunology and the Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo.

Footnotes
Dr Unanue is the recipient of the 1995 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

Reprint requests to the Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S Euclid St, Campus Box 8118, St Louis, MO 63110-1093 (Dr Unanue).

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