Natural Killer T (NKT) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes that recognize a wide variety of lipid antigens presented by CD1 molecules. NKT cells exhibit rapid activation after recognition of cognate antigens, secrete abundant amounts of T helper (Th) 1, Th2, and Th17 cytokines within hours of activation and shape the immune response through subsequent activation of dendritic, NK, T and B cells. NKT cells therefore play central roles in antimicrobial and anticancer immunity and in modulation of various autoimmune disorders. Consequently, recent research has focused on the discovery of microbial and self-antigens involved in NKT cell activation. In this chapter, we discuss different strategies for studying antigen recognition by NKT cells including CD1d tetramer-based approaches and in vitro assays characterizing NKT cell activation in response to lipid antigen presentation. While toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists and cytokines such as IL-12 are critical for NKT cell activation in vivo, particularly in the context of microbial infection, methods for detection of TLR- and cytokine-dependent NKT cell activation will not be discussed in this section. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013.
CITATION STYLE
Zeissig, S., Olszak, T., Melum, E., & Blumberg, R. S. (2013). Analyzing antigen recognition by natural killer T cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, 960, 557–572. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-218-6_41
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.