A pool of endogenous peptides bound to the human class I MHC molecule, HLA-B27, has been isolated. Microsequence analysis of the pool and of 11 HPLC-purified peptides provides information on the binding specificity of the HLA-B27 molecule. The peptides all seem to be nonamers, seven of which match to protein sequences in a database search. These self peptides derive from abundant cytosolic or nuclear proteins, such as histone, ribosomal proteins, and members of the 90K heat-shock protein family.