The T-cell receptor V beta repertoire in naive and human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infected chimpanzees.

Using a panel of human T-cell receptor (TCR) variable region beta chain (V beta) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers, we performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of the TCR V beta repertoire in naive and HIV-1 infected chimpanzees. We demonstrate that our TCR PCR primer panel will support amplification of chimpanzee cDNA from most of the TCR V beta families. However, no differences in TCR V beta expression were found between the naive and HIV-1 infected chimpanzees, unlike the TCR V beta repertoire perturbation found in HIV-1 infected human subjects. This finding suggests that a complete TCR repertoire in HIV-1 infected chimpanzees is associated with the maintenance CD4+ T-cell numbers and lack of progression to AIDS.