Autophagic compartments gain access to the MHC class II compartments in thymic epithelium - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2009 Dec 1;183(11):7278-85.

doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.0804087. Epub 2009 Nov 13.

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Autophagic compartments gain access to the MHC class II compartments in thymic epithelium

Michiyuki Kasai et al. J Immunol. 2009.

Abstract

The presentation of self-peptides in the context of MHC molecules by thymic epithelial cells (TECs) is essential for T cell repertoire selection in the thymus. However, the underlying mechanisms of this process have not been fully elucidated. To address whether autophagy, a catabolic process involving the degradation of a cell's components through the lysosomal machinery, intersects the MHC class II-restricted Ag presentation pathway in TECs, we investigated the colocalization of LC3, a peculiar autophagy marker molecule, with MHC class II compartments in in vitro-established TEC lines by immunofluorescence microscopy and Western blotting analyses. We found that in both cortical and medullary TEC lines, LC3 was colocalized with the H2-DM-positive lysosomal compartments, in which MHC class II plus class II-associated invariant chain peptides complexes are formed. Furthermore, our analysis of thymic cryosections from 1-day-old mice revealed that LC3 colocalizes with the H2-DM-positive compartments in TECs. These results strongly suggest that the cytoplasmic self-Ags gain access to the H2-DM-positive compartments via the autophagic process in the thymus.

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