Molecular analysis of T cell receptor gamma gene expression in allo-activated splenic T cells of adult mice.

Northern analysis, hybridization in situ and cDNA sequence analysis have been used to demonstrate that the induction of T cell gamma-gene expression is a general occurrence when primary splenic T cells of adult mice are cultured in short-term mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR). Splenic T cells from nine strains of mice examined in eleven different MLR all showed significant induction of gamma-RNA, even when the primary T cell response was to only a three amino acid mismatch in a major histocompatibility complex class I antigen. In MLR examined in detail, the expression is highly enriched for in CD3+ "double-negative" T cells (lacking both CD4 and CD8 expression). A cDNA sequence analysis, constituting the first such analysis of any size of gamma-gene transcripts from circulating, peripheral cells of adult mice, revealed transcription to be frequently of productively rearranged genes. These genes display extensive junctional diversity.