title: T cell repertoire in mice with alopecia areata.
abstract: It has become clear that skin infiltrating autoreactive CD4+ T helper cells play a crucial role in the initiation of alopecia areata. However, the natures of the pathogenic T cell clones as well as of the skin antigen they recognize remain obscure. Here, we analyzed the T cell receptor repertoire expressed in the spleen of diseased mice. We consistently observed the dominant expansion of a limited set of T cell clones expressing Vbeta8.2/Jbeta2.5 T cell receptor rearrangement. We conclude that T cell response in mice alopecia areata is markedly oligoclonal; a feature that may permit the design of selective immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory at Davies Medical Center, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benichou
authors.forename: V H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000506:Alopecia Areata / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D015329:Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte; D051379:Mice; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell