The binding of a lysozyme and ovalbumin peptide to purified class II major histocompatibiity molecules in detergents was increased by the addition of certain lipids. Natural lipids from B lymphoma cells enhanced the binding and so did phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, and cardiolipin. Phosphatidylethanolamine, sphingomyelin, and cholesterol had no effect. There was no major difference between the effects of a phospholipid and its lyso derivative. As studied with phosphatidylcholine, the increase in peptide binding was also dependent on the fatty acid composition of the lipid. (MHC) proteins (1,2). The extent of binding of peptides to histocompatibility molecules, which can be studied in detergent solutions (1-7), usually correlates with their immunogenicity in vivo (2-4). There are, however, indications that the interactions of peptides with class II MHC may be quantitatively different on live antigen-presenting cells. For example, the binding of antigenic peptides to class II MHC molecules on live cells was reported to be much faster than that found in solution (8-10). A similar result was found for the dissociation of peptides bound to the class II MHC molecules (11).We recently found that the labeling of class II MHC molecules to peptides containing a photoreactive compound was influenced by phospholipids, both in the extent as well as in the relative degree ofthe a or p chain labeling (12). When tested on cell membranes that contained class II MHC proteins, photoreactive conjugates of the hen egg white lysozyme (HEL) peptide from residues 46 to 61 labeled exclusively the a chain of I-Ak (13). Conversely, I-Ak purified in an equimolar solution of MEGA 8 and MEGA 9 detergents was labeled to similar extent on both chains. However, the addition of certain lysophospholipids resulted in strong binding, with lysophosphatidylcholine predominantly labeling the a chain and lysophosphatidylserine labeling the ,B chain. We concluded that class II MHC molecules contained dialyzable components required for their binding integrity and that, most likely, these components were lipids.Lipid-protein interactions are of critical importance in maintaining the biological activity of a number of membrane proteins (for review, see refs. 14-16). These interactions may have different degrees of specificity and often induce conformational changes in the protein critical for their function (14,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Lipids, by interacting directly with the MHC protein or by changing the structure ofthe detergent micelles, may induce conformational changes reflected in the distal binding site of the protein (23,24). Consistent with this hypothesis are the observations indicating that class II MHC molecules reconstituted in lipid monolayers present peptides differently, depending on the lipid composition (25). Other studies have shown that treatment of antigen-presenting cells with purified phospholipase A2 or C, or with cerulenin, an antibiotic that interferes with lipid metabolism, greatly dimi...