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The Journal of Clinical Investigation logoLink to The Journal of Clinical Investigation
. 1994 Jul;94(1):105–109. doi: 10.1172/JCI117295

Homologies between T cell receptor junctional sequences unique to multiple sclerosis and T cells mediating experimental allergic encephalomyelitis.

M Allegretta 1, R J Albertini 1, M D Howell 1, L R Smith 1, R Martin 1, H F McFarland 1, S Sriram 1, S Brostoff 1, L Steinman 1
PMCID: PMC296287  PMID: 8040252

Abstract

The selection of T cell clones with mutations in the hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (hprt) gene has been used to isolate T cells reactive to myelin basic protein (MBP) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). These T cell clones are activated in vivo, and are not found in healthy individuals. The third complementarity determining regions (CDR3) of the T cell receptor (TCR) alpha and beta chains are the putative contact sites for peptide fragments of MBP bound in the groove of the HLA molecule. The TCR V gene usage and CDR3s of these MBP-reactive hprt-T cell clones are homologous to TCRs from other T cells relevant to MS, including T cells causing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) and T cells found in brain lesions and in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients. In vivo activated MBP-reactive T cells in MS patients may be critical in the pathogenesis of MS.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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