Comparison of peptide–major histocompatibility complex tetramers and dextramers for the identification of antigen-specific T cells. (9th June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dolton, G; Lissina, A; Skowera, A; Ladell, K; Tungatt, K; Jones, E; Kronenberg-Versteeg, D; Akpovwa, H; Pentier, J M; Holland, C J; Godkin, A J; Cole, D K; Neller, M A; Miles, J J; Price, D A; Peakman, M; Sewell, A K
• Is Part Of: Clinical and experimental immunology. Volume 177:Number 1(2014:Jul.)
• Page Start: 47
• Page End: 63
• Publication Date: 2014-06-09
• Subjects: autoimmunity -- diabetes -- T cell receptors -- T cells -- tumour immunology; Immunopathology -- Periodicals; 616.079
• DOI: 10.1111/cei.12339
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-9104

Abstract

Summary: Fluorochrome-conjugated peptide–major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) multimers are widely used for flow cytometric visualization of antigen-specific T cells. The most common multimers, streptavidin–biotin-based 'tetramers', can be manufactured readily in the laboratory. Unfortunately, there are large differences between the threshold of T cell receptor (TCR) affinity required to capture pMHC tetramers from solution and that which is required for T cell activation. This disparity means that tetramers sometimes fail to stain antigen-specific T cells within a sample, an issue that is particularly problematic when staining tumour-specific, autoimmune or MHC class II-restricted T cells, which often display TCRs of low affinity for pMHC. Here, we compared optimized staining with tetramers and dextramers (dextran-based multimers), with the latter carrying greater numbers of both pMHC and fluorochrome per molecule. Most notably, we find that: (i) dextramers stain more brightly than tetramers; (ii) dextramers outperform tetramers when TCR–pMHC affinity is low; (iii) dextramers outperform tetramers with pMHC class II reagents where there is an absence of co-receptor stabilization; and (iv) dextramer sensitivity is enhanced further by specific protein kinase inhibition. Dextramers are compatible with current state-of-the-art flow cytometry platforms and will probably find particular utility in the fields of autoimmunity and cancer immunology.