Fig. 5.

TCR-α repertoire of iNKT cells in the periphery of 2A3-D Tg mice. Splenocytes from C57BL/6 and 2A3-D Tg mice were MACS bead-enriched for PBS57-CD1d tetramer-positive cells and PBS57-CD1d tetramer-positive TCR-β⁺ iNKT cells were subsequently FACS sorted from the positive fraction. (A) Vα14-Cα PCR products were sequenced using the 454 platform and the frequency use of T-cell receptor-α joining (TRAJ) genes encoding productive rearrangements with T-cell receptor alpha variable gene (TRAV) TRAV11 is shown (data representative of n = 2). The TRAJ number, from 58 to 2, follow the order that the genes are found in the TCR-α locus. (B) Frequency and CDR3 size (in amino acids) of the Vα14-Jα18 rearrangements in C57BL/6 or 2A3-D Tg iNKT splenocytes (data representative of n = 2). The canonical D⁹⁴ rearrangement is depicted in blue and the A⁹⁴ variant sequence is depicted in red. Other sequences (i.e., other 94 variants as well as other position variants) are depicted in black.