Clonal Deletion Prunes but Does Not Eliminate Self-Specific αβ CD8(+) T Lymphocytes

Overview

Journal Immunity

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2015 May 21

PMID 25992863

Citations 172

Authors

Wong Yu

Ning Jiang

Peter J R Ebert

Brian A Kidd

Sabina Muller

Peder J Lund

Jeremy Juang

Keishi Adachi

Tiffany Tse

Michael E Birnbaum

Evan W Newell

Darrell M Wilson

Gijsbert M Grotenbreg

Salvatore Valitutti

Stephen R Quake

Mark M Davis

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

It has long been thought that clonal deletion efficiently removes almost all self-specific T cells from the peripheral repertoire. We found that self-peptide MHC-specific CD8(+) T cells in the blood of healthy humans were present in frequencies similar to those specific for non-self antigens. For the Y chromosome-encoded SMCY antigen, self-specific T cells exhibited only a 3-fold lower average frequency in males versus females and were anergic with respect to peptide activation, although this inhibition could be overcome by a stronger stimulus. We conclude that clonal deletion prunes but does not eliminate self-specific T cells and suggest that to do so would create holes in the repertoire that pathogens could readily exploit. In support of this hypothesis, we detected T cells specific for all 20 amino acid variants at the p5 position of a hepatitis C virus epitope in a random group of blood donors.

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