Journal
CELL RESEARCH
Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages 33-42Publisher
INST BIOCHEMISTRY & CELL BIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1038/cr.2012.1
Keywords
public T cell response; convergent recombination; recombinatorial biases; thymic selection
Categories
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2009CB522200]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30830092, 30921005, 91029304, 81061160512, 61174161]
- Sino-Swiss International Collaboration Grant [2009DFA32760]
- Science Planning Program of Fujian Province [2009J1010]
- Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China [20090121110022]
- Xiamen University [2011121047, 201112G018, CXB2011035]
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Historically, sharing T cell receptors (TCRs) between individuals has been speculated to be impossible, considering the dramatic discrepancy between the potential enormity of the TCR repertoire and the limited number of T cells generated in each individual. However, public T cell response, in which multiple individuals share identical TCRs in responding to a same antigenic epitope, has been extensively observed in a variety of immune responses across many species. Public T cell responses enable individuals within a population to generate similar antigen-specific TCRs against certain ubiquitous pathogens, leading to favorable biological outcomes. However, the relatively concentrated feature of TCR repertoire may limit T cell response in a population to some other pathogens. It could be a great benefit for human health if public T cell responses can be manipulated. Therefore, the mechanistic insight of public TCR generation is important to know. Recently, high-throughput DNA sequencing has revolutionized the study of immune receptor repertoires, which allows a much better understanding of the factors that determine the overlap of TCR repertoire among individuals. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on public T-cell response and discuss future challenges in this field.
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