T cell receptor specificity is critical for the development of epidermal γδ T cells

Abstract

A particular feature of γδ T cell biology is that cells expressing T cell receptor (TCR) using specific Vγ/Vδ segments are localized in distinct epithelial sites, e.g., in mouse epidermis nearly all γδ T cells express Vγ3/Vδ1. These cells, referred to as dendritic epidermal T cells (DETC) originate from fetal Vγ3+ thymocytes. The role of γδ TCR specificity in DETC's migration/localization to the skin has remained controversial. To address this issue we have generated transgenic (Tg) mice expressing a TCR δ chain (Vδ6.3-Dδ1-Dδ2-Jδ1-Cδ), which can pair with Vδ3 in fetal thymocytes but is not normally expressed by DETC. In wild-type (wt) Vδ6.3Tg mice DETC were present and virtually all of them express Vδ6.3. However, DETC were absent in TCR-δ-/- Vδ6.3Tg mice, despite the fact that Vδ6.3Tg γδ T cells were present in normal numbers in other lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues. In wt Vδ6.3Tg mice, a high proportion of in-frame Vδ1 transcripts were found in DETC, suggesting that the expression of an endogenous TCR-δ (most probably Vδ1) was required for the development of Vδ6.3+ epidermal γδ T cells. Collectively our data demonstrate that TCR specificity is essential for the development of γδ T cells in the epidermis. Moreover, they show that the TCR-δ locus is not allelically excluded.