SHARED T-CELL RECEPTOR GENE USAGE IN EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGIC NEURITIS AND ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

Experimental allergic neuritis, an autoimmune disease of the peripheral nervous system, is a model for human Guillain-Barre syndrome. Experimental allergic neuritis is mediated by CD4 + T cells reactive with myelin P2 protein. We demonstrate that these T cells use the same members of T-cell receptor V gene families for both their alpha (V-alpha-2) and beta (V-beta-8) chains as T cells that cause experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Furthermore, these T cells appear to be idiotypically related. Therefore, completely different T-cell lines with different antigen specificities, producing entirely different diseases, share common T-cell receptors.