Inverse correlation between steady‐state RNA and cell surface T cell receptor levels

The relationship between steady‐state RNA and cell surface levels of T cell receptor (TCR) was examined in mature T cells and immature CD4 + CD8 + double positive thymocytes. TCR is expressed at high levels on the surface of mature T cells and at much lower levels on double positive thymocytes. We demonstrate that in direct contrast to surface expression, TCR‐α, ‐β, CD3‐δ, ‐ϵ, ‐γ, and s RNA levels are much higher in the immature double positive thymocyte population than in mature T cells. These results demonstrate that quantitative differences in TCR surface expression in immature and mature T cells are not due to increases in TCR RNA levels.— M aguire , J. E.; M c C arthy , S. A.; S inger , A.; S inger , D. S. Inverse correlation between steady‐state RNA and cell surface T cell receptor levels. FASEB J. 4: 3131‐3134; 1990.