MHC Class I & II Tetramers

Our MHC Tetramers enable MHC Class I and Class II detection of antigen-specific T cells

T-cell receptors (TCRs) are found on T-cell surfaces.  They recognize and bind to MHC molecule complex bound with specific peptide sequences expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells.  These MHC complexes bind with peptides that were formed from cytosolic protein degradation. MHC complexes are divided into Class I and Class II, where CD 8+ T-cells recognize Class I MHC molecules and CD 4+ T-cells recognize Class II MHC molecules. 

MBL International provides high quality MHC Tetramers for targeted detection of specific MHC/peptide complexes.  MHC/peptide monomers are biotinylated and tetramerized with streptavidin to maintain stable binding to multiple TCR, enabling MHC/peptide tetramers to be used as detection tools.  MBL International offers MHC tetramers for various Class I Human, Mouse, Rhesus Macaque, Mauritian Cyno, Chicken and Human-Mouse chimera alleles.  Also offered are various Class II Human and Mouse alleles, as well as CD1d and MR1 tetramers. Phycoerythrin (PE), allophycocyanin (APC), or Brilliant Violet^™ 421 (BV421) fluorophores are available for detection of antigen-specific T cells by flow cytometry or fluorescence microscopy using our MHC multimers.

MHC tetramer technology is based on the ability of MHC-peptide complexes to recognize the antigen-specific T cells at a single cell level. This breakthrough technology enables researchers to precisely measure targeted T-cell responses in infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.

• MBLI tetramers offer Superior Specificity with α3 Mutation*
• Class I and Class II Available
• PE, APC and BV421 Conjugates Available
• QuickSwitch™ Create your own custom Class I and Class II MHC tetramers
• Available MHC Alleles
• Custom Services Available

*Only human and macaque HLA Class I Tetramers contain the alpha 3 mutation.

Tetramer Staining Protocol and Tips

Advantages over competitors

Our MHC tetramers show a higher performance in specificity and target separation when comparing to MHC Multimers

Comparison with competitors (MHC Class I)

	MBL MHC CLASS I TETRAMER	COMPETITOR’S MULTIMER
Reactivity	Our MHC tetramers show high specificity due to a patented mutation (alanine to valine at position 245) in the MHC class I heavy chain, which reduces undesirable CD8-MHC interaction.	No comments regarding reactivity of competitor’s multimers.
Quality	Optimized mixing ratio of raw materials dramatically improves tetramer synthesis efficiency and achieves high sensitivity.	Competitor’s multimers sometimes show low reproducibility due to difficulties in quality and quantity control of the number of MHC molecules when producing multimers.
Stability	Can be stored at 4°C in refrigerated form for several months and is ready-to-use.	Storage stability is equivalent to MBL MHC tetramers.
Custom MHC Tetramer	Availability of more than 60 types of MHC alleles.	Only 20-30 types of alleles.

Process of MHC Class I Tetramer Synthesis

Detection of Antigen-Specific T Cells by MHC Tetramers

Unique α3 mutation to increase detection specificity

Create your own custom MHC tetramers with QuickSwitch™

Create high quality custom human Class I and Class II MHC tetramers and mouse Class I MHC tetramers in your own lab using our unique QuickSwitch™ tetramer kit. Create new specificity tetramers in just a few hours with QuickSwitch™, a proprietary technology where peptides are easily exchanged on MHC tetramers.  Use this kit for screening peptide-MHC affinities, make your own MHC tetramers, and many other applications. Multiple alleles are offered, and new alleles are continuously being added to our QuickSwitch™ kit offerings.

Learn about the types of MHC Molecules

Find important tetramer documents below:

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