The generation and use of allergen-specific TCR transgenic animals

Abstract

The generation of allergen-specific TCR transgenic animals allows for the characterization of allergen-specific T-cell responses in vivo and in vitro and is a powerful tool to study adaptive immunity to allergens. Here we describe an approach starting from the isolation of antigen-specific T-cell hybridomas and using PCR, flow cytometric, and co-culture methods to obtain antigen-specific MHC class II-restricted CD4 + TCR transgenic mice on the Rag2 −/− background.