The processing and presentation of antigens by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules is a crucial immunological phenomenon in infectious disease, malignancy, autoimmune disease, and transplantation. In Antigen Processing and Presentation Protocols, well-recognized and innovative experimentalists detail their cutting-edge methods for studying this complex process. Drawing on expertise from biochemistry, cell biology, and immunology, they describe step-by-step methods designed to question how MHC-binding peptides are generated, to test how peptides are delivered to MHC molecules, to analyze MHC peptide-binding patterns, and to assay the T cell response to the MHC/peptide complex. Each method is presented in sufficient detail to be readily reproducible and includes notes about potential pitfalls and tips on how to avoid failures. Emphasis is given those technical steps critical for experimental success that are often omitted from methods published in the primary literature.
Eminently accessible and state-of-the-art, Antigen Processing and Presentation Protocols provides both new and experienced investigators with highly practical tools that will extend the questions that can be asked, and effectively be answered, concerning antigen processing/presentation.