去年,免疫学家终于实现了鉴定T细胞识别抗原所需的受体分子的宿愿。这种受体分子的结构对于理解T-细胞如何执行其免疫功能,包括杀伤作为异物而识别的细胞及调节其它免疫细胞的活性(如B-细胞生成抗体)都是必要的。现已了解,T-细胞受体由两种不同的蛋白链组成,这两条链与抗体蛋白的结构相似。几个月前,两个研究小组报导他们克隆此受体基因。一组是从小鼠细胞克隆,另一组是从人类细胞克隆,但结果表明两者都是编码同一种肽链即β-链。α-链基因迄今仍然令人困惑。麻省理工学院(MIT)的Tonegawa等报告,从一种小鼠 Last year, immunologists finally realized the identification of receptor molecules required for T-cell recognition. The structure of such receptor molecules is necessary to understand how T-cells perform their immune functions, including killing cells that are identified as foreign bodies and modulating the activity of other immune cells, such as B-cell-producing antibodies. It is now known that T-cell receptors are composed of two distinct protein chains that are similar in structure to the antibody protein. A few months ago, two research groups reported that they cloned this receptor gene. One group was cloned from a mouse cell and the other group was cloned from a human cell, but the results indicated that both encode the same peptide chain, ie, β-chain. Alpha-chain genes have so far remained confusing. Tonegawa et al. From MIT report from one mouse