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Publisher Summary This chapter discusses present knowledge regarding the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The human MHC is important for antigen presentation, for the cell cooperation that leads to cytotoxic cell, for antibody and delayed type hypersensitivity responses, and for the level of control exerted on these responses. The actual T-cell killing process is also mediated by MHC-region antigens. It is unreasonable to expect that all specificities are equally efficient in their actions but on grounds of natural selection alone all would be expected to fulfill their function. A particular class I antigen might be the best target when associated with viral products but may be on the same haplotype as a class II region product giving relatively poor viral presentation. Thus, although disease susceptibility genes do exist in the MHC, one would not expect that many MHC antigen coding areas will be disease susceptibility genes in the conventional sense. Gene probes will, thus, only enable the best MHC markers for a particular disease to be found. |
