Rejection of cardiac allografts by T cells expressing a restricted repertoire of T-cell receptor V beta genes
Abstract
We have recently shown that T cells infiltrating cardiac allografts early in graft rejection use a limited T-cell receptor (TCR) V beta repertoire. In this study we tested whether this limited repertoire of V beta genes is important for graft rejection. A cell line, AL2-L3, was established from LEW lymphocytes infiltrating ACI heart allografts 2 days after transplantation. This cell line is composed of CD4+ T cells that primarily recognize the class II RTI.B major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule expressed by the donor graft. This cell line precipitated acute rejection of donor hearts with a median survival time (MST) of 10.5 days following adoptive transfer to sublethally irradiated LEW recipients. This rate of graft rejection was significantly (P < 0.0007) accelerated when compared with a MST of 60 days for allografts in irradiated control recipients. The AL2-L3-mediated acceleration of graft rejection was donor specific as WF third-party heart allografts were rejected with a delayed tempo (MST = 28.5 days). The V beta repertoire of this cell line was primarily restricted to the expression of V beta 4, 15 and 19 genes. The nucleotide sequence analysis of the beta-chain cDNAs from this cell line demonstrated that the ...Continue Reading
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