Quantitative Analysis of the T Cell Repertoire Selected by a Single Peptide–Major Histocompatibility Complex

The positive selection of CD4⁺ T cells requires the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules in the thymus, but the role of self-peptides complexed to class II molecules is still a matter of debate. Recently, it was observed that transgenic mice expressing a single peptide–MHC class II complex positively select significant numbers of diverse CD4⁺ T cells in the thymus. However, the number of selected T cell specificities has not been evaluated so far. Here, we have sequenced 700 junctional complementarity determining regions 3 (CDR3) from T cell receptors (TCRs) carrying Vβ11-Jβ1.1 or Vβ12-Jβ1.1 rearrangements. We found that a single peptide–MHC class II complex positively selects at least 10⁵ different Vβ rearrangements. Our data yield a first evaluation of the size of the T cell repertoire. In addition, they provide evidence that the single Eα52-68–I-A^b complex skews the amino acid frequency in the TCR CDR3 loop of positively selected T cells. A detailed analysis of CDR3 sequences indicates that a fraction of the β chain repertoire bears the imprint of the selecting self-peptide.