Restricted junctional usage of T cell receptor V beta 2 and V beta 13 genes, which are overrepresented on infiltrating T cells in the lips of patients with Sjögren's syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the clonality of T cell receptor (TCR) V beta 2- and V beta 13-positive T cells, which are predominantly expressed in the lips of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS).


METHODS
The junctional sequences of complementary DNA clones encoding TCR V beta 2 and V beta 13 genes were determined by the polymerase chain reaction. Forty-one V beta 2 and 45 V beta 13 clones established from the lips of 3 SS patients were sequenced.


RESULTS
The V beta 2/J beta 2.3 pair was enriched in 2 of the 3 patients (44% and 46% of the clones, respectively), and the V beta 13/J beta 2.1 sequence was dominant in 2 of the 3 (23% and 45%). These pairs were not used preferentially in peripheral blood lymphocytes from the same patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Infiltrating V beta 2- and V beta 13-positive T cells from the lips of all 3 patients with SS were polyclonal, but the junctional usage of cells from 2 lip samples was restricted, compared with cells from peripheral blood. This suggests that not all expanded cells from the lips of SS patients are stimulated by superantigens.
Yonaha
F
F
Second Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
Sumida
T
T
Maeda
T
T
Tomioka
H
H
Koike
T
T
Yoshida
S
S
D001483:Base Sequence; D015870:Gene Expression; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D008046:Lip / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics*; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000235:genetics*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D015335:Molecular Probes; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta