Direct phenotypic analysis of human MHC class I antigen presentation: visualization, quantitation, and in situ detection of human viral epitopes using peptide-specific, MHC-restricted human recombinant antibodies.

The advent in recent years of the application of tetrameric arrays of class I peptide-MHC complexes now enables us to detect and study rare populations of Ag-specific CD8(+) T cells. However, available methods cannot visualize or determine the number and distribution of these TCR ligands on individual cells nor detect APCs in tissues. In this study, we describe for the first time studies of human class I peptide-MHC ligand presentation.