I was wondering how rapidly a mature DC, when pulsed with an antigen in vitro, presents it on the surface (for detection purposes)?

Is there a big time difference between a peptide and a whole protein?

Thanks for any help here.

Ed

peptide should be quicker in presentation than the whole protein, cause protein needs to be processed in order to be presented on the surface.

Thanks, I understand that the peptide doesn't need the same processing that a whole protein does, but what is the timescale here? A few hours? A few minutes? A day?

Ed

I believe its a few hours, but I don't have a reference for that. I asked the same question to a visiting professor last week who's research area was antigen presentation.