Figure 2.

Range of TCR affinities for an individual pMHC in a polyclonal repertoire. (A,B) Gaussian distributions were modeled for the described T cells by utilizing previously published effective 2D affinity means and standard deviations using the equation P(x) = 1/[σ × sqrt(2π) × e^∧(−(X − μ)^∧2/(2s^∧2)] where P(x) is the probability density function or distribution, σ is the standard deviation, X is the variate or bin interval, and μ is the mean log of the TCR affinities. (A) The monoclonal SMARTA T cells and the polyclonal GP_61–80 population both recognize GP_66–77: IA^b. The 2D micropipette adhesion frequency assay was used to determine the mean effective 2D affinities and standard deviations as previously reported (48, 78). Gaussian distributions indicated that SMARTA T cells exhibit a higher log of affinity μm⁴ (−2.7 + 0.39) ∼10-fold higher than the polyclonal T cell populations (−3.5 + 0.63), indicating that monoclonal population underrepresented the polyclonal affinity range. (B) The 2D micropipette adhesion frequency assay was used to ascertain the mean effective 2D affinities and standard deviations for the polyclonal GP_61–80 repertoire (unsorted) and FACS sorted GP_66–77: IA^b tetramer positive and negative populations (78). Gaussian distributions indicated that both the tetramer positive (∼peak at −3.0) and tetramer negative (∼peak at −5.0) populations under represented the range of affinities exhibited by the polyclonal (unsorted) repertoire.