Figure 7. The responding CD8+ T cell repertoire is highly focussed in tumor sites and spleen.

Spectratypes of TCR Vβ1 and Vβ2 transcripts from magnetically sorted CD8+ cells derived from multiple tumor sites of four birds (birds 11–14) are presented. The profiles show skewed distributions evident in all tumors sites within both Vβ1 and Vβ2, with some being shared between different tumors within a single host, some of which are also seen in spleen. These birds were also examined for CD4+ tumor clonality by spectratype (Figure S6) and CDR3 sequence (Figure S7) which revealed a combination of shared and tumor site-specific clones. The spectratype distributions of samples were compared with the TCRVβ1 or TCRVβ2 reference profiles from CD8β+ spleen cells obtained from uninfected birds by X² analysis; statistical significance is indicated with each panel. NS = not significant (at p>0.05). Li, liver; Kd, Kidney; Ov, ovary; Spl, spleen.