The aim of this study was to evaluate the T-cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta repertoire in the two main histological subtypes of nodal non-anaplastic peripheral T-cell lymphoma: Not Otherwise Specified (NOS) and angioimmunoblastic lymphoma (AIL). Frozen lymph node tissues of eight NOS and six AIL were analyzed. A reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was carried out to assess the expression of the 24 Vbeta gene families. Our study showed a broad TCR Vbeta repertoire in AIL and NOS, with a slight increase in the number of Vbeta families in AIL (16 vs 10 on agarose gels). Nevertheless, there was a clear difference in four cases. A predominant Vbeta family was observed in two NOS, whereas no predominant Vbeta family was observed in the AIL. Two AIL showed the whole Vbeta repertoire, whereas it was never observed in NOS. This pattern may help to categorize these histopathological entities and further suggests a differential T-cell response. These results show that numerous reactive T-cells are present both in AIL and NOS. Possibly, they play a role in the growth of these lymphomas.