Expression of the T-Cell Receptor γ -Chain Gene Products on the Surface of Peripheral T Cells and T-Cell Blasts Generated by Allogeneic Mixed Lymphocyte Reaction

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1987-09, Vol.84 (18), p.6536-6540
• Main Authors: Maeda, Keiji, Nakanishi, Nobuki, Rogers, Bruce L., Haser, Wayne G., Shitara, Kenya, Yoshida, Hajime, Takagaki, Yohtaroh, Augustin, Andrei A., Tonegawa, Susumu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis of the immune response. Humoral and cellular immunity; Animals; Antibodies; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; Antigens, Ly - analysis; Antigens, Surface - analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Blasts; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; Genes; Glycosylation; Immunobiology; Immunoprecipitation; Isoelectric Point; Lymphocyte Activation; Macromolecular Substances; Mice; Mixed lymphocyte culture test; Molecular chains; Organs and cells involved in the immune response; Peptide Fragments - metabolism; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell - metabolism; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta; Spleen; Spleen - immunology; Spleen cells; T lymphocytes; T-Lymphocytes - physiology; Thymocytes; Thymus Gland - immunology
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.84.18.6536

The γ -chain genes of the T-cell receptors form a family of related genes that are specifically expressed and somatically rearranged in T cells. Using poly- and monoclonal anti-γ antibodies, we studied the cell-surface expression of the γ -chain gene products in mouse peripheral T cells as well as in the T-cell blasts generated by allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions. The γ chains are expressed in the Lyt2-,L3T4- subsets of these T-cell populations as disulfide-linked heterodimers. Whereas the electrophoretic mobility and the N-glycosylation of the spleen and lymph-node γ chains are indistinguishable from those of the reported thymocyte γ chain, a minor fraction of the T blasts generated by allogeneic stimulation of B10 lymph-node T cells with B10.BR spleen cells seems to express γ chains with distinct properties. This suggests that the mixed lymphocyte culture conditions exert a selective effect on the expression of γ chains among peripheral T-cell populations.