In the normal repertoire of CD4+ T cells, a single class II MHC/peptide complex positively selects TCRs with various antigen specificities

Bartosz Chmielowski, Pawel Muranski, Leszek Ignatowicz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the thymus, immature T cells are positively and negatively selected by multiple interactions between their Ag receptors (TCRs) and self MHC/peptide complexes expressed on thymic stromal cells. Here we show that in the milieu of negative selection on physiological self class H MHC/peptide complexes (A(b)wt), a single class II/peptide complex A(b)Ep52-68 positively selects a number of TCRs with various Ag specificities. This TCR repertoire is semidiverse and not biased toward Ep-like Ags. Our finding implies that the degeneracy of positive selection for peptide ligands exceeds peptide-specific negative selection and is essential to increase the efficiency and diversity of the repertoire so that T cells with the same Ag specificity can be selected by different self MHC/peptide complexes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)95-105
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Immunology
Volume162
Issue number1
StatePublished - Jan 1 1999

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology

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