Abstract 11: T Cell Functions in a Novel Antigen-specific Experimentally-induced Model of Atherosclerosis

IntroductionWhile it is realized that inflammation plays a key role in the development of atherosclerosis, the underlying mechanism of how T cells, directly or indirectly, trigger and propagate the disease process, is not forthcoming. This is because there is no knowledge of what constitutes an atherogenic T cell and how to isolate it. New and innovative ideas are needed. HypothesisWe reason that T cells are antigen specific and identification of the atherogenic antigenic epitopes of an autoantigen should lead us to identification of the atherogenic T cells themselves. MethodsSince the T cell receptor only recognizes a short peptide of the antigen in association with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, our focus was directed towards elucidating the peptides that form a ligand with MHC class II proteins and bind to atherogenic T cells. It has been known that oxidized low-density lipoprotein, ApoB100, heat-shock protein 60 and β2 glycoprotein I are the major atherogenic antigens. Because differ...