The presence of an endogenous murine leukemia virus sequence correlates with the peripheral expansion of γδ T cells bearing the BALB invariant delta (BID) T cell receptor δ

Abstract

γδ T cells participate in immune responses during viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections. However, it is not clear whether they recognize antigens produced by pathogens, or are actually reactive to self-ligands generated during the course of infection. In this paper, we report that the presence of the self-ligand that selectively expands a subset of γδ T cells correlates with the presence of an endogenous murine leukemia virus (MuLV) in inbred strains of mice. The implications of this observation for γδ T cell specificity and function is discussed.