In Mls-1a mice, fetal-type β-gene rearrangements are frequent among self-anergic V β 6 T cells

Abstract

T lymphocytes generated in the fetal and neonatal period are characterized by T cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements that lack N region nucleotides (fetal-type TCR). Using fetal-type TCP, as a lineage marker, we show that such T cells are long-lived and persist in the periphery of adult mice. Moreover, in both neonatal and adult environments, upon encounter with selfantigens, they are less likely to be deleted. Inefficient clonal deletion could be due to the intrinsic properties of the T cells generated during this period, or to yet unknown properties of the perinatal thymus. Such anergic T cells constitute a subset that can further expand in vivo in an antigenindependent fashion, leaving open the possibility for self-aggression under the appropriate triggering conditions. © 1993, Rockefeller University Press., All rights reserved.