Conservation of T cell receptor usage by HLA B27‐restricted influenza‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes suggests a general pattern for antigen‐specific major histocompatibility complex class I‐restricted responses

AbstractEight HLA B7‐restricted influenza A virus nucleoprotein 383–391‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones were obtained from three unrelated donors following natural infection. T cell receptor (TcR) usage was studied using the “anchored” polymerase chain reaction. TcR α‐chain usage was restricted with three predominant Vα (Vα 12.1, 14.1, 22) and two predominant Jα segments. β‐chain variable‐region usage was also conserved, with Vβ7 being used by five clones despite contributing less than 2% of peripheral blood lymphocyte Vβ sequences of one individual studied. The TcR β‐chain junctional region was highly conserved even between CTL clones from unrelated individuals, with a negatively charged amino acid, contributed to by N‐region addition, encoded at position 97 in all but two clones. This study shows that peptide‐specific HLA B27‐restricted CTL following influenza virus infection use very similar TcR and, when considered with previous studies, suggests a pattern of TcR conservation for major histocompatibility complex class I‐restricted responses. No difference in TcR usage was detected between one healthy donor and two with HLA B27‐associated arthritis.