AN ENDOGENOUS ANTIGENIC PEPTIDE BYPASSES THE CLASS-I ANTIGEN PRESENTATION DEFECT IN RMA-S

The RMA-S cell line was derived from the Raucher virus-induced murine cell line RBL-5 by ethylmethane sulfonate mutagenesis and anti-H-2 antibody plus complement selection (Ljunggren, H.-G., and K. Karre. 1985. J. Exp. Med. 162:1745). RMA-S is defective in the ability to present endogenously synthesized antigens to class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) (Townsend, A., C. Ohlen, J. Bastin, H.-G. Ljunggren, L. Foster, and K. Karre. 1989. Nature [Lond.]. 340:443; Ohlen, C., J. Bastin, H.-G. Ljunggren, L. Foster, E. Wolpert, G. Klein, A. R. M. Townsend, and K. Karre. 1990. J. Immunol. 145:52). This defect has been attributed to the inability of RMA-S to deliver antigenic peptides derived from antigens in the cytosol into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where they can associate with class I MHC molecules (Townsend, A., C. Ohlen, J. Bastin, H.-G. Ljunggren, L. Foster, and K. Karre. 1989. Nature [Lond.]. 340:443). We show that RMA-S can present at least one endogenous antigen, vesicular stomatitis virus nucleoprotein (VSV-N), to class I MHC-restricted CTL. RMA-S presents VSV-N to CTL both when infected with VSV or transfected with the VSV nucleoprotein gene. The natural antigenic VSV nucleoprotein peptides purified from either RMA or RMA-S are indistinguishable when analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. We also show that the genetic defect responsible for the RMA-S phenotype maps to the murine chromosome 17. This chromosome encodes the murine class I MHC genes as well as two genes, HAM-1 and -2, with homology to the adenosine triphosphate-dependent transporter superfamily (Monaco, J. J., S. Cho, and M. Attaya. 1990. Science [Wash. DC]. 250:1723). These results suggest that the system that delivers antigenic peptides from the cytosol to the ER in RMA-S may still be present and retain partial function.