Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Arstila, T P
• Casrouge, A
• Baron, V
• Even, J
• Kanellopoulos, J
• Kourilsky, P

Titel

A direct estimate of the human alpha beta T cell receptor diversity

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 1999-10, Vol.286 (5441), p.958-961

Erscheinungsjahr

1999

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Generation and maintenance of an effective repertoire of T cell antigen receptors are essential to the immune system, yet the number of distinct T cell receptors (TCRs) expressed by the estimated 10 super(12) T cells in the human body is not known. In this study, TCR gene amplification and sequencing showed that there are about 10 super(6) different beta chains in the blood, each pairing, on the average, with at least 25 different alpha chains. In the memory subset, the diversity decreased to 1 x 10 super(5) to 2 x 10 super(5) different beta chains, each pairing with only a single alpha chain. Thus, the naive repertoire is highly diverse, whereas the memory compartment, here one-third of the T cell population, contributes less than 1 percent of the total diversity.