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T Lymphocytes in Human Gut Epithelium Preferentially Express the α/β Antigen Receptor and are often CD45/UCHL1‐Positive
Author(s) -
BRANDTZAEG P.,
BOSNES V.,
HALSTENSEN T. S.,
SCOTT H.,
SOLLID L. M.,
VALNES K. N.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1989.tb01196.x
Subject(s) - intraepithelial lymphocyte , t cell receptor , cd3 , biology , cd8 , monoclonal antibody , antigen , cytotoxic t cell , intestinal epithelium , t lymphocyte , microbiology and biotechnology , epithelium , t cell , immunology , antibody , immune system , genetics , in vitro
A revived interest in intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) has been elicited by several recent reports suggesting that murine and avian intestinal epithelium contains mainly CD3 + CD8 + cells expressing the γ/δ T‐cell receptor (TcR) for antigen; this contrasts with systemically distributed T cells which preferentially employ the TcRα/β. An anatomical dichotomy in the distribution of these two T‐cell lineages has hence been proposed. Here we report that this concept does not hold true in man. In situ studies with monoclonal TcR‐framework antibodies showed that most (70–90%) human intestinal IEL (which are mainly CD3 + CD8 + ) expressed TcRα/β. Moreover, almost half of the intraepithelial CD3 + cells were positive for the smallest (180 kDa) CD45 molecule (UCHL1); this probably reflected that they are antigen‐primed and thus represent traditional CD3 + CD8 + α/β + memory T cells.