Title: superantigen
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - superantigen
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13699
Status: current

Definition
Antigen which reacts with all the T cells belonging to a particular T-cell receptor (TCR) variable (V) region family, and which therefore stimulates (or deletes) a much larger number of cells than does conventional antigen.

Related Terms
- T cells: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13724
- T-cell receptor (TCR): https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13714
- variable (V) region: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13773

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1247 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13699/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13699/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13699/xml

Citation: Citation: 'superantigen' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13699
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Accessed: 2026-08-02T11:47:45+00:00