|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
J. Exp. Med.,
Volume 189, Number 10, May 17, 1999 1591-1600
By
From the Unité de Biologie Moléculaire du Gène, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche
Médicale U277 and Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris, France
Primary T cell responses rely on the recruitment and proliferation of antigen-specific T cell
precursors. The extent of expansion of each individual T cell clone may depend on (a) its frequency before immunization, (b) its proliferative capacity, and (c) the time at which it first encounters its cognate antigen. In this report, we have analyzed the relative contribution of each
of these parameters to the shaping of immune repertoires in the T cell response specific for the
epitope 170-179 derived from HLA-Cw3 and presented by Kd. By means of hemisplenectomy,
we compared immune and naive repertoires in the same animal and found that the frequency
of all expanded T cell clones was extremely low before immunization. In particular, the most
expanded clones did not derive from high-frequency precursors. In addition, recruited T cells
were found to proliferate at the same rate, irrespective of their T cell antigen receptor sequence. Finally, we showed that only T cells that encounter the antigen at early time points account for
a significant part of the specific response. Therefore, the contribution of a T cell clone to the immune response is mostly determined by the time of its entry into the immune repertoire,
i.e., the time of first cell division after antigen encounter.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
