Secondary rearrangements of the T cell receptor (TCR) represent a genetic correction mechanism which changes T cell specificity by re-activating V(D)J recombination in peripheral T cells. Murine T-cell hybridoma A1.1 was employed to investigate whether antigenic stimulation induced re-expression of recombinase genes and altered TCR Vβ expression. Following repeated antigenic stimulation, A1.1 cells were induced to re-express recombination activating gene (RAG)1 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) which are generally considered prerequisite to TCR gene rearrangement. Accompanied with the significant changes in TCR mRNA levels over time, it is suggested that secondary rearrangements may be induced in A1.1 cells, which represent a mature T cell clone capable of re-expressing RAG genes and possesses the prerequisite for secondary V(D)J rearrangement.
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