Fig. 10

Linked suppression paradigm for the absent activation of MOG34-56-reactive T cells. We postulate that the marmoset’s immune repertoire contains pre-sensitized autoreactive T cells against two dominant MOG epitopes, i.e. the CD4 cells/Th1 epitope 24–36 (blue triangle) and the CTL epitope 40–48 (red circle), which are juxta-positioned in an evolutionary conserved region in the extracellular domain, residues 20–50. In monkeys immunized with the MOG20-50 peptide, both epitopes are processed and presented simultaneously on the APC surface. Conceptually, this implies that reactivation of CTL cells by the 40–48 epitope (red repertoire) may be blunted by Tr1 cells re-activated at the same APC by the MOG24-36 epitope (blue repertoire)