REARRANGEMENT AND EXPRESSION OF THE ANTIGEN RECEPTOR ALPHA BETA AND GAMMA GENES IN SUPPRESSOR ANTIGEN-SPECIFIC T CELL LINES

The rearrangement and transcription of the antigen receptor .alpha., .beta. and .gamma. genes were investigated in murine antigen-specific suppressor T cell lines, to establish whether the suppressor T cell subset expresses the same antigen receptor transcripts previously found in helper and cytotoxic T lymphocytes. The genomic organization of the .alpha., .beta. and .gamma. chain loci was investigated using probes representative of the entire gene or fragments from variable, joining and constant regions. The present results show that in functional suppressor T cells the 3 antigen receptor genes are all rearranged. The .beta. gene is expressed in all the tested cell lines, while the expression of the .alpha. and .gamma. genes is variable. In 1 cell line (LH8) .alpha. and .gamma. genes are not efficiently transcribed; in the other cell line (LA41) the .gamma. mRNA is found in amounts similar to .beta. mRNA, whereas the .alpha. gene is expressed at low levels. These data suggest that in suppressor T cells no direct correlation exists between the expression of .alpha., .beta. and .gamma. antigen receptor genes and the effector function.