Analysis of NKT Cell Endogenous Ligands

The activation of natural killer T (NKT) cells – a regulatory T cell subset – during the immune response is thought to be reliant on endogenous glycolipid display. Many potential candidates for these NKT cell self- antigens have been proposed, including β-linked glycosylceramides. However, determining their actual identity has been difficult due to the low sensitivity of the chemical methods that could not rule out low-level α-anomer contamination of natural or synthetic β-anomer preparations.