Complementary DNA sequences encoding rat T-cell receptor delta-chain D1-, D2-, J1-, and C-region proteins

The role of gamma delta T-cell receptor (TCR)-bearing T cells in induction or down-regulation of the T-cell-mediated disease experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) has been investigated in Lewis rats (Wildner et al. 1996). To elucidate the mode of action of these gamma delta TCR super(+) cells, characterization of their gamma delta TCR is required. Repertoire studies aiming at a quantitative determination of variable (V) gene usage in TCR delta -chain (Tcrd) cDNA have been performed in the mouse using the technique of inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Weber-Arden et al. 1996). Similar studies in rat T-cell populations require the precise determination of the constant (Tcrd-C) gene nucleotide sequence for optimal PCR primer design. Only scarce sequence data are available, however, for the rat gamma delta TCR. Thus, V-region usage has been analyzed in dendritic epidermal gamma delta T cells by RT-PCR using V-specific primers in combination with an antisense primer from the very 5' end of the Tcrd-C gene (Kuehnlein et al. 1996). Using primers specific for the mouse Tcrd-V7 subfamily (named V delta 6 in Elliott et al. 1988; for nomenclature see Arden et al. 1995) and the 3' flanking sequence of the mouse Tcrd-C gene, we isolated and characterized four independent rat cDNA clones including the complete Tcrd-C coding sequence.