THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX IN MAN

The HLA system is a complex of polymorphic genes divided into a class I group and a class II group. The disclosed tertiary structure of HLA antigens indicates that they are principally involved in binding a var iety of self and foreign immunogenic peptides and in their presentatio n to T cells. Class III HLA region is located between class I and clas s II regions. It comprises many genes, some of them participate in eve nts of the immune response, too.