Abstract
dc:description.abstractPolymyositis (PM) is an autoimmune disease cased by CD8+ T lymphocytes that destroy HLA class I-expressing skeletal muscle fibres. Recently we demonstrated that the autoaggressive T lymphocytes in PM muscle are clonally expanded. We employed a new PCR-based method to identify and characterize clonally expanded T cell populations. The method (CDR3-Spectratyping) relies on te natural length variation of the third hypervariable region (CDR3) of the rearranged T cell receptor gene: whereas a polyclonal T cell population shows a random, Gauss-distributed length variation of the CDR3, a clonally expanded population has a uniform CDR3 length, which can be identified as a single band on a sequencing gel. We analysed matched pairs of cDNA from muscle biopsies and peripheral blood lymphocytes of PM patients and confirmed previously identified expanded T cell clones in muscle biopsy specimen. Moreover, we repeatedly detected identical clonally expanded T cell populations both in the imflamed muscle tissue and in the peripheral blood of untreated PM patients.
Degree
thesis:*- Level thesis:degree_level
- thesis.doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
- Year
- 2003
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Wiesener, Solveigh Charlotte
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record source_url
- https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1419/
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de:1419