Cutting edge: Highly alloreactive dual TCR T cells play a dominant role in graft-versus-host disease

GP Morris, PM Allen - The Journal of Immunology, 2009 - journals.aai.org
GP Morris, PM Allen
The Journal of Immunology, 2009journals.aai.org
Alloreactivity is the response of T cells to MHC molecules not encountered during thymic
development. A small population (1–8%) of peripheral T cells in mice and humans express
two TCRs due to incomplete allelic exclusion of TCRα, and we hypothesized they are highly
alloreactive. FACS analysis of mouse T cell MLR revealed increased dual TCR T cells
among alloreactive cells. Quantitative assessment of the alloreactive repertoire
demonstrated a nearly 50% reduction in alloreactive T cell frequency among T cells …
Abstract
Alloreactivity is the response of T cells to MHC molecules not encountered during thymic development. A small population (1–8%) of peripheral T cells in mice and humans express two TCRs due to incomplete allelic exclusion of TCRα, and we hypothesized they are highly alloreactive. FACS analysis of mouse T cell MLR revealed increased dual TCR T cells among alloreactive cells. Quantitative assessment of the alloreactive repertoire demonstrated a nearly 50% reduction in alloreactive T cell frequency among T cells incapable of expressing a secondary TCR. We directly demonstrated expansion of the alloreactive T cell repertoire at the single cell level by identifying a dual TCR T cell with distinct alloreactivities for each TCR. The importance of dual TCR T cells is clearly demonstrated in a parent-into-F 1 model of graft-vs-host disease, where dual TCR T cells comprised up to 60% of peripheral activated T cells, demonstrating a disproportionate contribution to disease.
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