Germline repertoire of T-cell receptor beta-chain genes in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

We have investigated the genotype and allelic distribution of germline restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the T-cell receptor beta chain, segment C beta, and two variable segments which are in linkage disequilibrium, V beta 8 and V beta 11, in 42 insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients and in 51 healthy blood donors used as controls. Recently, several works have reported contradictory results showing or not showing an association between polymorphic alleles of the C beta gene and diabetes type I. We found no significant differences in the allele, genotype, and haplotype distribution of the gene segments studied, between IDDM patients and control populations.