Initiation of the complement system results in the formation of a multiprotein pore termed the membrane attack complex (MAC, C5b-C9). MAC pores accumulate on a cell surface and can result in cell lysis. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a single monolayer of pigmented epithelial cells located at the posterior poll of the eye that forms the outer blood retinal barrier. RPE cells are highly polarized with apical microvilli and basolateral contact with Bruch’s membrane. In order to obtain biologically relevant polarized RPE cultures in vitro, RPE cells are seeded onto the apical side of a transwell filter and cultured for 4 weeks in low serum media. MAC formation on RPE cells has been reported to be sub-lytic. MAC formation can be achieved in vitro by introduction of normal human

Immune tolerance and response are both largely driven by the interactions between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) expressed by antigen presenting cells (APCs), T-cell receptors (TCRs) on T-cells, and their cognate antigens. Disordered interactions cause the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. Therefore, the identification of antigenic epitopes of autoreactive T-cells leads to important advances in therapeutics and biomarkers. Next-generation sequencing methods allow for the rapid identification of thousands of TCR clonotypes from single T-cells, and thus there is a need to determine cognate antigens for identified TCRs. This protocol describes a reporter system of T-cell activation where the fluorescent reporter protein ZsGreen-1 is driven by nuclear