Human thymopoiesis produces polyspecific CD8⁺ α/β T cells responding to multiple viral antigens.

ABSTRACT: T-cell receptors (TCRs) are formed by stochastic gene rearrangements, theoretically generating >10¹⁹ sequences. They are selected during thymopoiesis, which releases a repertoire of about 10⁸ unique TCRs per individual. How evolution shaped a process that produces TCRs that can effectively handle a countless and evolving set of infectious agents is a central question of immunology. The paradigm is that a diverse enough repertoire of TCRs should always provide a proper, though rare, specificity for any given need. Expansion of such rare T cells would provide enough fighters for an effective immune response and enough antigen-experienced cells for memory. We show here that human thymopoiesis releases a large population of clustered CD8⁺ T cells harboring α/β

SUBMITTER: Quiniou V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10063231 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature