The structure recognized by regulatory T cells that enables them to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery is one of the central issues of regulatory T cell biology. A link between immunoregulation and self-nonself discrimination has emerged from experiments showing that Qa-1-restricted CD8 ؉ T cells selectively downregulate target T cells activated by the intermediate avidity of their own T cell antigen receptor-ligand interactions. Because the peripheral self-reactive T cell repertoire is devoid of high-avidity T cells compared with the foreign-reactive repertoire, as a result of thymic negative selection, the selective down-regulation of intermediate but not high-avidity T cells enables the immune system to suppress autoimmunity without damaging the ongoing immune response to foreign pathogens. However, the molecular mechanism delineating how avidity of T cell activation is perceived by the regulatory T cells has not been elucidated. Here we show that a heat shock peptide (Hsp60sp), coupled with the MHC class Ib molecule Qa-1, is a surrogate target structure that is preferentially expressed at a higher level on the intermediate avidity T cells and specifically recognized by the Qa-1-restricted CD8 ؉ T cells. The biological significance of this observation was confirmed by the ability of Hsp60sp-loaded relevant dendritic cells to induce a Qa-1-restricted CD8 ؉ T cell-mediated protection from autoimmune encephalopathy in the experimental allergic encephalomyelitis model. Thus, perceiving the avidity of T cell activation can be translated into peripheral T cell regulation to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery to maintain self-tolerance.autoimmune diseases ͉ Qa-1/HLA-E-restricted regulatory CD8 ϩ T cells ͉ self-nonself discrimination H ow the immune system achieves self-nonself discrimination remains a central conundrum in the study of immunology. Intrathymic deletion of high-avidity, self-reactive T cell clones generates a truncated peripheral self-reactive repertoire composed of mainly intermediate-and low-but devoid of high-avidity clones compared with the foreign-reactive repertoire, which possesses T cells with a full range of avidity. It is likely that potentially pathogenic self-reactive T cells are included in the pool of the ''intermediate-avidity'' thymic escapees that could be activated in the periphery to initiate autoimmune diseases (1-4). It is thus inevitable that one of the major functions of peripheral regulatory mechanisms is to selectively down-regulate immune response to self-antigens without damaging the ongoing immune response to foreign pathogens (5). The distinctive composition of peripheral T cell repertoires to self vs. to foreign antigens provides a unique opportunity for the immune system to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery by a unified mechanism of selectively down-regulating intermediate-avidity T cells to both self and foreign antigens. Selective down-regulation of intermediate-avidity T cell populations containing the potentially pathogenic self...
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