Nonrandom T-cell receptor J beta usage pattern in human CD4+ and CD8+ peripheral T cells.
Association frequencies of TCR J beta gene segments with six V beta families (V beta 3, 6.1-3, 8, 9, 12, and 18) were analyzed in T-cell populations obtained from healthy blood donors. The six selected V beta families are located at various chromosomal positions relative to other recombinatorial elements (D beta, J beta, C beta). We report here that in CD4+ as well as CD8+ T-cell subsets, all 13 J beta gene segments were used in combination with all the V beta s tested and that no correlation between the genomic position of the individual V beta s and J beta gene segment usage was observed. J beta gene segment usage was found to be nonrandom in general, with J beta 2.7 and J beta 2.4 exhibiting highest and lowest frequency of utilization, respectively. J beta family 2 was used more frequently than J beta family 1 by the two T-cell subsets. Some individual J beta gene segments were skewed toward either CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. Thus, J beta 1.3 and J beta 1.6 were consistently biased toward expression in CD4+ T cells. In contrast, when combined with V beta 8 or V beta 9, J beta 2.1 results were skewed dramatically toward expression in CD8+ T cells. We also found 70 cases of expanded individual V beta/J beta associations in a total of 1092 investigated combinations, 62 of which were confined to the CD8+ T-cell populations. CD8+ T-cell populations are thus much more likely to contain TCR V beta/J beta-restricted expansions than CD4+ T cells.
Jeddi-Tehrani
M
M
Department of Immunology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Grunewald
J
J
Hodara
V
V
Andersson
R
R
Wigzell
H
H
D015139:Blotting, Southern; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics*
D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta