Size Estimate of the αβ TCR Repertoire of Naive Mouse Splenocytes

The diversity of the T cell repertoire of mature T splenocytes is generated, in the thymus, by pairing of α and β variable domains of the αβ TCR and by the rearrangements of various gene segments encoding these domains. In the periphery, it results from competition between various T cell subpopulations including recent thymic migrants and long-lived T cells. Quantitative data on the actual size of the T cell repertoire are lacking. Using PCR methods and extensive sequencing, we have measured for the first time the size of the TCR-αβ repertoire of naive mouse T splenocytes. There are 5–8 × 105 different nucleotide sequences of BV chains in the whole spleen of young adult mice. We have also determined the size of the BV repertoire in a subpopulation of AV2+ T splenocytes, which allows us to provide a minimum estimate of the αβ repertoire. We find that the mouse spleen harbors about 2 × 106 clones of about 10 cells each. This figure, although orders of magnitude smaller than the maximum theoretical diversity (estimated up to 1015), is still large enough to maintain a high functional diversity.