Abstract
SPECIFIC monoclonal antibodies have made possible the identification of two T-cell antigen receptor (TCR) heterodimers, αβ TCR (refs 1-3) and γδ TCR (ref. 4). Formation of these receptors is largely separated by the preferential pairing of α-TCR with β and γ-TCR with δ (refs 5 & 6), the sequential rearrangement and expression of the TCR loci during thymic development7-10 and the deletion of the δ-loci either prior to or concomitant with α-rearrangement in αβ TCR cells11-13. Here we show that δ-TCR can substitute for α in pairing with β to form a βδ heterodimer. This receptor is expressed on the cell surface of the T-leukaemia cell line DND41 as analysed with β- and δ-specific monoclonal antibodies. We suggest that a variety of factors including, for example, the deletion of the δ-TCR loci, can now be understood as exclusion mechanisms operating to prevent not only the formation of γδ receptors, but also of βδ T-cell receptors, thereby promoting the numerically dominant αβ TCR lineage. Nevertheless, some developing T cells that do not rearrange the α-loci may express the βδ TCR as described here.
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Hochstenbach, F., Brenner, M. T-cell receptor δ-chain can substitute for α to form a βδ heterodimer. Nature 340, 562–565 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/340562a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/340562a0
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