Quantitative Analysis of the Usage of Human T-Cell Receptor α and β Chain Variable Regions by Reverse Dot-Blot Hybridization

Mature T lymphocytes specifically recognize antigens through interaction between MHC/peptide complex and αβ or γδ TCR. Variable region genes created by recombination of variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) locus contribute to shaping T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires (1 ,2 ). Thus, TCRαV and TCRβV repertoires have been studied for characterizing of T cells that may play major role in peripheral blood or pathological lesions of patients with autoimmune diseases (3 –6 ).