Fassò M, Anandasabapathy N, Crawford F, Kappler J, Fathman CG, Ridgway WM. T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated repertoire selection and loss of TCR vbeta diversity during the initiation of a CD4(+) T cell response in vivo.
J Exp Med 2000;
192:1719-30. [PMID:
11120769 PMCID:
PMC2213496 DOI:
10.1084/jem.192.12.1719]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2000] [Accepted: 10/07/2000] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
We recently described a novel way to isolate populations of antigen-reactive CD4(+) T cells with a wide range of reactivity to a specific antigen, using immunization with a fixed dose of nominal antigen and FACS((R)) sorting by CD4(high) expression. Phenotypic, FACS((R)), functional, antibody inhibition, and major histocompatibility complex-peptide tetramer analyses, as well as T cell receptor Vbeta sequence analyses, of the antigen-specific CD4(high) T cell populations demonstrated that a diverse sperm whale myoglobin 110-121-reactive CD4(+) T cell repertoire was activated at the beginning (day 3 after immunization) of the immune response. Within 6 d of immunization, lower affinity clones were lost from the responding population, leaving an expanded population of oligoclonal, intermediate affinity (and residual high affinity) T cells. This T cell subset persisted for at least 4 wk after immunization and dominated the secondary immune response. These data provide evidence that CD4(+) T cell repertoire selection occurs early in the immune response in vivo and suggest that persistence and expansion of a population of oligoclonal, intermediate affinity T cells is involved in CD4(+) T cell memory.
Collapse