Preferential expression of Vβ6.7 domain on human peripheral CD4+ T cells. Implication for positive selection of T cells in man

✍ Scribed by Andrea Cossarizza; Melvyn Kahan; Claudio Ortolani; Claudio Franceschi; Marco Londei

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 421 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0014-2980
• DOI: 10.1002/eji.1830210637

✦ Synopsis

Preferential expression of Vg6.7 domain on human peripheral CD4+ T cells. Implication for positive selection of T cells in man*

The peripheral Tcell receptor repertoire is mainly controlled by the processes of positive and negative selection occurring in the thymus. Studies in normal or transgenic mice have provided compelling evidence for both negative and positive selection. Negative selection is characterized by partial or total disappearance from the periphery of Tcells expressing certain Cg regions, which are normally present in the thymus. Positive selection is chiefly characterized, in the periphery, by an imbalanced ratio between CD4+ and CD8+ Tcells expressing a given V domain.

To date little information concerning positive and negative selection has been available in man.We studied the distribution of 4 Vg domains on CD4+ and CD8+ peripheral Tcells of 34 healthy individuals with a wide age-range (0-96 years). One of the Vg domain studied, Vg6.7, is preferentially expressed on CD4+ compared to CD8+ Tcells (p > 0.001). No significant differences were observed using the other Vg domain-specific monoclonal antibodies (Vp5.2-5.3,8 or 12). These results Drovide evidence that a Drocess of thvmic education, similar to that described in murine