Quantitative assessment of myelin basic protein-reactive T cell entry to the central nervous system by using oligonucleotide probes complementary to VDJ junctional sequences of rat TCR β-chain

Abstract

The VDJ junctional region represents the most diverse part of the antigenic TCR. We have previously reported that of 200 sequenced TCR β-chains of rat MBP-reactive T cells, rarely did two share sequence homology over the entire CDR3 region. In this study, we demonstrate that sequences of the TCR CDR3 region are excellent clonotypic markers for rat MBP-reactive T cell clones and oligonucleotide probes complementary to the CDR3 region of three T cell clones specifically recognized the TCR from which they were derived, but failed to recognize syngeneic T cells that express a similar TCR β-chain or T cells that share both V β and J β usage. To explore this observation, we determined the ability of MBP-reactive T cell clones to enter the CNS. We were able to show that some MBP-reactive T cell clones have an augmented ability to enter the CNS and that fully-activated T cells have a higher penetrating activity than their less-activated T cell counterparts.