A tyrosinase nonapeptide presented by HLA-B44 is recognized on a human melanoma by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes

The human tyrosinase gene has been reported previously to code for two distinct antigens recognized on HLA-A2 melanoma cells by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). By stimulating lymphocytes of melanoma patient MZ2 with a subclone of the tumor cell line of this patient, we obtained a CTL clone that lysed this subclone but did not lyse other subcloncs of the Same melanoma cell line. The sensitive melanoma subclone was found to express a much higher level of tyrosinase than the others, suggesting that the antigen recognized bv the CTL might be encoded by tyrosinase. Transfection of a tyrosinase cDNA demonstrated that the CTL clone indeed recognized a tyrosinase product presented by HLA-…