Functional α and β T cell chain receptor messages can be detected in old but not in young athymic mice
✍ Scribed by Kenji Kishihara; Yasunobu Yoshikai; Goro Matsuzaki; Tak W. Mak; Kikuo Nomoto
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 657 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0014-2980
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Functional a and p T cell chain receptor messages can be detected in old but not in young athymic mice*
The expression and sequences of T cell antigen receptor (TcR) a and p-chain genes were investigated in the spleens from congenitally athymic (nude) mice. A small number of Thy-1' cells (-7.0%) was found in nylon wool-enriched spleen cells from young (8 weeks old) nude mice but no L3T4 or Lyt-2 surface antigens were detected. These nude mice expressed only a low level of 1.0-kb P-chain mRNA and little or no a-gene transcripts. On the other hand the number of Thy-l+ spleen cells increased slightly (to 24%) in old (20 weeks old) nude mice and a small number of L3T4' (10%) and/or Lyt-2' (5%) cells were detectable. "Full length" 1.7-kb a-chain and 1.3-kb pchain messages could be found in nylon wool-enriched spleen cells from old nude mice. Sequence analysis of the cDNA revealed that no functional a and p-chain genes can be detected in the spleen cells of young athymic mice while some of the old mice with ndnu genotype are composed of completely rearranged V-(D)-J-C-gene segments which encode potentially functional proteins. Interestingly, two of three independent cDNA clones encoding the a chain used the same V, and J,-gene segments. These results suggest that extrathymic TcR a and P-chain gene rearrangements do occur, though slowly, to some extent, in nude mice and may be responsible for the limited antigen and/or H-Zrelated T cell functions in these old athymic mice. The data further suggests that the TcR repertoire in athymic mice may also be limited.