Analysis of t cell receptor vβ diversity in peripheral cd4+ and cd8+ t lymphocytes in patients with autoimmune thyroid di

Autoimmune thyroid diseases are characterized by intrathyroidal infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes reactive to self-thyroid antigens. Early studies analysing T cell receptor (TCR) V[alpha] gene usage have shown oligoclonal expansion of intrathyroidal T lymphocytes but not peripheral blood T cells. However, TCR V[beta] diversity of the isolated CD4+ and CD8+ T cell compartments in the peripheral blood has not been characterized fully in these patients. We performed complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) spectratyping as well as flow cytometric analysis for the TCR V[beta] repertoire in peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from 13 patients with Graves' disease and 17 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Polyclonal TCR V[beta] repertoire was demonstrated by flow cytometry in both ...