Major Histocompatibility

Complex
Chapter 8
Figure 8-1
 MHC
• Haplotype:
– The set of alleles present on each
chromosome
– Outbred individuals have 2 haplotypes
– Inbred individuals have 2 identical
haplotypes
• MHC molecules are co-dominantly
expressed.
 Inbred Mice
• In a given inbred strain of mice, every
mouse is genetically identical to every
other mouse in that strain.
– Syngenic
– Allogenic
• Strains or individuals express different alleles.
 Graft Nomenclature
• Isograft
– Graft from one individual to itself
• Syngenic
– Graft between identical individuals
• Allograft
– Graft between individuals of different strain.
• Xenograft
– Graft between different species
 Diversity
• MHC molecules exhibit a high degree of
diversity
• Diversity is due to polymorphism or the
presence of multiple alleles in the
population for a given locus.
• The sequence variation between alleles
is clustered to the 1/2 and 1/1
regions of class I and class II molecules
respectively.
Ting and Trowsdale, 2002