Zerrahn J, Held W, Raulet D H
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Cancer Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA.
Cell. 1997 Mar 7;88(5):627-36. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(00)81905-4.
T cell antigen receptors (TCRs) on mature T cells react with peptide antigens presented by self-MHC proteins and also frequently cross-react with foreign MHC proteins. The fundamental question whether MHC reactivity is inherent in the germline TCR sequences or is imposed by thymic selection was addressed here by inducing nonselective maturation of immature thymocytes in the absence of MHC molecules. MHC reactivity in the preselection repertoire is very high, but no higher than in the normal repertoire. Cross-reactivity of clones with multiple MHC molecules occurred to a similar extent in the preselection and MHC-selected repertoires. The results establish the MHC reactivity of the germline TCR repertoire, indicate the minimum fraction of immature thymocytes that must undergo negative selection, and suggest that some TCR-MHC contacts may be conserved.
成熟T细胞上的T细胞抗原受体（TCR）与自身MHC蛋白呈递的肽抗原发生反应，并且还经常与外来MHC蛋白发生交叉反应。这里通过在没有MHC分子的情况下诱导未成熟胸腺细胞进行非选择性成熟，探讨了MHC反应性是种系TCR序列中固有的，还是由胸腺选择施加的这一基本问题。预选库中的MHC反应性非常高，但并不高于正常库。具有多种MHC分子的克隆的交叉反应性在预选库和MHC选择库中发生的程度相似。这些结果确立了种系TCR库的MHC反应性，表明了必须经历阴性选择的未成熟胸腺细胞的最小比例，并提示某些TCR-MHC接触可能是保守的。
