Multiple T-cell clones specific for the same foreign pMHC ligand can be generated from a single, ancestral TCR-VDJ[beta] precursor

• Published in: Immunologic research 2004-10, Vol.30 (2), p.231
• Main Authors: Maryanski, Janet L, Aublin, Anne, Attuil-audenis, Valérie, Hamrouni, Abdelbasset
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cloning; Immune system; Immunology; T cell receptors
• ISSN: 0257-277X; 1559-0755
• DOI: 10.1385/IR:30:2:231

Owing to ordered, stage-specific T-cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements and cell division during T-cell development, small cohorts of "half-sibling" T cells sharing an ancestral TCR VDJ β rearrangement but expressing different TCRα-locus rearrangements may be selected into the mature T-cell repertoire. We wondered whether different αβTCRs expressed by T cells from the same ancestral VDJβ cohort might be capable of recognizing the same foreign peptide-major histocompatibility complex complex (pMHC). By a combiend flow cytometric and single-cell polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach to analyze TCRs selected by the previously defined foreign antigne, pCW3 ^sub 170-179^/H-2Kd, we were able to identify cohorts of half-sibling antigen-specific CD8 T cells after their expansion in immunized mice. We amplifed residual Dβ rearrangements as clonal markers to confirm that the shared VDβ sequences represent ancestral rearrangements rather than identical but independent ones. An intriguing explanation of our findings would be that only a very limited repertoire of TCRα-chains is selected to pair with a given TCRβ-chain during T-cell development.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]