V beta gene repertoires in T cells expanded in local self-healing and lethal systemic murine cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Inbred mice infected with Leishmania major promastigotes display two different courses of leishmaniasis: resistant strains develop self-healing local sores, while susceptible strains show progressive systemic disease with lethal outcome. Resistance predominantly correlates with the production of T helper type 1 (TH1) lymphokines and susceptibility with production of TH2-type lymphokines. Here, we analyzed whether this TH phenotype difference correlates with expression of particular T cell receptor V beta chains. Our results show that T cells expand strongly during infection in all groups of mice and invariantly express the same V beta gene families as prior to infection. Our data indicate that TH1 and TH2 cells use similar V beta gene families, and argue against the engagement of a restricted set of V beta by dominant determinants associated with L. major.
Lohoff
M
M
Institut für klinische Mikrobiologie, Erlangen, FRG.
Steinert
M
M
Weiss
A
A
Röllinghoff
M
M
Balderas
R S
RS
Theofilopoulos
A N
AN
D000818:Animals; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D015333:Gene Rearrangement, beta-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000276:immunology; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics*
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta