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Bias in the αβ T‐cell repertoire: implications for disease pathogenesis and vaccination
Author(s) -
Miles John J,
Douek Daniel C,
Price David A
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
immunology and cell biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0818-9641
DOI - 10.1038/icb.2010.139
Subject(s) - t cell receptor , repertoire , biology , evolutionary biology , computational biology , immune system , t cell , immunology , physics , acoustics
The naïve T‐cell repertoire is vast, containing millions of unique T‐cell receptor (TCR) structures. Faced with such diversity, the mobilization of TCR structures from this enormous pool was once thought to be a stochastic, even chaotic, process. However, steady and systematic dissection over the last 20 years has revealed that this is not the case. Instead, the TCR repertoire deployed against individual antigens is routinely ordered and biased. Often, identical and near‐identical TCR repertoires can be observed across different individuals, suggesting that the system encompasses an element of predictability. This review provides a catalog of αβ TCR bias by disease and by species, and discusses the mechanisms that govern this inherent and widespread phenomenon.