I am not sure that you got it fully straight. So here ia a 6 hour lecture block condensed into 60 seconds: HLA= Human Lymphocyte Antigens This is the equivalent to the mouse (mammalian) MHC ( Major Histocompatibility Complex). The MHC contain three groups of genes: class I, class II and clas III which control the following: Class I & class II code for surface recognition molecules class III codes for some complement components. All nucleated cells express clas I MHC antigens on their surface class II on some Bcells, and macrophages, acivated cells (Tcells) In humans the HLA gene is located on chromosome #6. Class I genes code for transplantation antigens A, B and C Class II genes are DP,DQ, DR and DZ. Class III as we said are that of the complement system. The difference between the mouse and the human "MHC" is that in the human all the genes are linerly arranged and uninterupted while in the mouse the MHC the class I genes are interupted by Class II and III. Hope thatb his made is simple but not simpler. Good luck! Ierachmiel Daskal M.D. PhD. FCAP, FASCP Chairman Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (215) 456-6126 Pager: 2-3559 daskali@einstein.edu >>> Heidi Engelhardt <engel@uoguelph.ca> 09/06/01 01:26PM >>> Maciej Simm wrote: > > Many thanks to the many of you who took time to answer my question. > The summary: MHC is not HLA, and class2 is HLA-DR. My two cents: Considering MHC and HLA to be perfect synonyms simply reflects a "human-centric" view of immunology (which is appropriate for medics!). For what it's worth, the MHCs for pigs (swine), horses (equine), sheep (ovine) and cattle (bovine) are also known as SLA, ELA, OLA and BoLA, respectively. oink ...
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