Superantigens are interesting for several reasons. They exhibit unusual T-cell activation
characteristics, they allow to follow in vivo ligand-reactive T cells, they cause T-cell-mediated …

In the last 10 years many of the superantigens of the microbial world have been defined and
the mechanisms of cellular interaction between lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells …

Background: A role of bacterial superantigens in several chronic inflammatory diseases has
previously been proposed. Many of these diseases are associated with an imbalance of the …

Superantigens elicit massive and often destructive immune responses by circumventing the
usual rules of antigen presentation and T-cell recognition. Rather than binding to the cleft of …

Superantigens are a diverse collection of molecules that share the ability to activate specific
lymphocyte subsets. In animal models, many of these molecules delete T-cell populations or …

We observed that peripheral T cells activated in vivo or in vitro by superantigens are
susceptible to cell death when their antigen receptor is cross-linked with the appropriate anti …

Superantigens are powerful microbial toxins that activate the immune system by binding to
class II major histocompatibility complex and T-cell receptor molecules. They cause a …

Summary “Superantigens” have in common an extremely potent stimulatory activity for
CD4+, CD8+, and some γδ+ T lymphocytes. Superantigens use a unique mechanism: they …

Clonal deletion and/or inactivation establishes tolerance to self antigens. Endogenous and
exogenous (bacterial) superantigens, like the staphylococcal enterotoxlns, induce ligand …

Normally, when a person's im mune system encounters a pro tein made by a virus or other
microbe, fewer than one in"'10,000 of the white blood cells known as T lym phocytes react …