Abstract
We have postulated that in vivo autologous mixed lymphocyte reactions (AMLRs) are one mechanism in the development of the intrathyroidal lymphocytic infiltration of human autoimmune thyroid disease. Such a mechanism would explain the significant numbers of self-reactive T cells present in thyroid infiltrates as evidenced by cloning studies. However, infiltrating T cells in a variety of autoimmune diseases including autoimmune thyroid disease, demonstrate bias in their use of T cell receptor (TcR) V gene families. In order to examine whether such TcR V gene bias may occur secondary to non-antigen specific in vivo AMLRs rather than secondary to specific autoantigen driven mechanisms we have examined the human TcR repertoire after prolonged AMLRs in vitro. Using 5 healthy donors in 1, 2 and 3 week AMLRs we showed stimulation indices of 3.1–6.5 after 3 weeks. The hTcR Vα and Vβ gene repertoire was assessed using the PCR technique and revealed an almost complete repertoire of V gene families at the beginning of the studies while at the end of 3 weeks a mean of only 5.2 Vα genes were transcribed. Less restriction was seen in the hTcR Vβ repertoire with a mean of 9 Vβ genes used. These data demonstrate that the AMLR is able to mimic the marked bias in hTcR V gene family use seen within the inflamamatory infiltrates of autoimmune diseases.
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