Authors: McLean-Tooke, A.; Barge, D.¹; Spickett, G. P.¹; Gennery, A. R.²

Source: Clinical & Experimental Immunology, Volume 151, Number 1, January 2008 , pp. 190-198(9)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Summary

Evaluation of the T cell receptor (TCR) Vβ repertoire by flow cytometric analysis has been used for studying the T cell compartments for diseases in which T cells are implicated in the pathogenesis. For the interpretation of these studies information is needed about Vβ usage in healthy individuals and there are few data for normal usage in paediatric populations. We examined the T lymphocyte (sub)populations in 47 healthy controls (age range: 3 months−16 years). We found non-random Vβ usage with skewed reactivity of some families towards CD4⁺ or CD4^- T cells. Importantly, there appeared to be no significant change in Vβ usage according to age group. Some controls showed expansions in some Vβ families, although incidence of such expansions was low. We went on to examine the repertoire of CD4⁺CD25^Bright T regulatory cells in 25 healthy controls. We found overlapping quantitative usage for each of the Vβ families between CD4⁺CD25^- and CD4⁺CD25^Bright T cells. However, there was a significant preferential usage for five Vβ families and decreased usage of two Vβ families in the CD4⁺CD25^Bright T cells, suggesting that although they overlap there may be subtle but important differences in the TCR repertoire of T regulatory cells.

Keywords: clonality; T cell receptor; Vβ repertoire

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2249.2007.03536.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Immunology, Royal Victoria Infirmary, and 2: Department of Paediatric Immunology, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Publication date: 2008-01-01

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