title: The T cell receptor (TCR) in HLA-B27-restricted T cell responses--an introduction.
abstract: Recent data indicate that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are involved in the pathogenesis of HLA-B27-associated spondylarthropathies. In the absence of clearly defined "arthritogenic" bacterial or self peptides that are presented by HLA-B27 and recognized by such CD8+CTL, one approach has been to investigate the T cell repertoire of lesional cellular infiltrates by determining T cell receptor (TCR) variable (V) gene segment frequencies. Furthermore, the TCR V alpha and V beta chains of HLA-B27-restricted CTL clones, notably the putative peptide-contacting CDR3-regions of these TCRs, have been sequenced. This article will give a short review of the current literature on the topology of the TCR and its hypervariable CDR3 region, TCR repertoire diversity in rheumatic diseases and will concentrate on TCR V alpha and V beta gene usage in HLA-B27-restricted T cell responses.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Märker-Hermann
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duchmann
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ackermann
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Meyer Zum Büschenfelde
mesh_terms: D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen / Q000276:immunology*; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell