Presentation and processing of antigens in Paris

Abstract

A workshop on the molecular basis of antigen presentation by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules was dominated by the interpretation and correlation of cellular and molecular phenomena in terms of the newly determined crystallographic structure of the human MHC molecule, HLA-A2. Clearly, MHC molecules are peptide-binding proteins that present fragments of protein antigens to T lymphocytes. With establishment of a molecular paradigm for MHC restriction, research now turns to the intracellular processes that unite peptide with MHC and to the role of MHC in thymic education of T cells.