Common T‐cell receptor Vβ usage in oligoclonal T lymphocytes derived from cerebrospinal fluid and blood of patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

T‐cell populations were investigated in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. Individual T cells were directly cloned from the cerebrospinal fluid and blood before in vitro expansion, and their clonotypes were compared by Southern blot analysis of the rearrangement patterns of their T‐cell receptor β chain and γ chain genes. This allowed the determination of whether two T cell clones shared the same T‐cell receptor and thus arose from identical, clonally expanded (oligoclonal) progenitor T cells. As an extension of previous studies, oligoclonal T‐cell clones were identified in both cerebrospinal fluid and blood populations in 5 of 9 patients with inflammatory demyelinating disease among a total of 486 blood and cerebrospinal fluid T‐cell clones. In contrast, no clonally expanded T‐cell populations were found among a total of 424 clones derived from either blood of 4 normal control subjects or blood and cerebrospinal fluid of 8 patients with other neurological diseases. Analysis of T‐cell receptor Vβ genes among 4 oligoclonal T‐cell populations derived from 3 patients with multiple sclerosis demonstrated common usage of the Vβ12 gene segment. These data suggest that oligoclonal T cells share similar specificities and that clonal expansion may have resulted from specific stimulation by an antigen. Moreover, identical clones between blood and cerebrospinal fluid were observed in 3 of 9 patients with demyelinating disease, thus providing further evidence of an equilibrium between peripheral and central nervous system immune compartments. Copyright © 1991 American Neurological Association