Abstract
We measured CD8 T cell clonotypic diversity to three epitopes recognized in C57BL/6 mice infected with mouse hepatitis virus, strain JHM, or lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. We isolated epitope-specific T cells with an IFN-gamma capture assay or MHC class I/peptide tetramers and identified different clonotypes by Vbeta chain sequence analysis. In agreement with our previous results, the number of different clonotypes responding to all three epitopes fit a log-series distribution. From these distributions, we estimated that >1000 different clonotypes responded to each immunodominant CD8 T cell epitope; the response to a subdominant CD8 T cell epitope was modestly less diverse. These results suggest that T cell response diversity is greater by 1-2 orders of magnitude than predicted previously.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Animals
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CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
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CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / metabolism*
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CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / virology
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Clone Cells
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Coronavirus Infections / immunology*
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Coronavirus Infections / metabolism
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Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / immunology
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Gene Rearrangement, beta-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor
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Lymphocyte Activation
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Lymphocyte Count / methods
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Lymphocyte Count / statistics & numerical data
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Mice
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
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Murine hepatitis virus / immunology*
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Peptide Fragments / immunology
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Poisson Distribution
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Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / biosynthesis*
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Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / genetics
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Spleen / cytology
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Spleen / immunology
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Spleen / metabolism
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Viral Proteins / immunology
Substances
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Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte
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Peptide Fragments
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Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta
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Viral Proteins