Conserved TCR β chain usage in reactive arthritis; evidence for selection by a putative HLA-B27-associated autoantigen

Previous work suggested that expanded CD8+ T-cell clones in the synovial fluid (SF) of HLA-B27+ patients with reactive arthritis (ReA) preferentially use the T-cell receptor variable region (TCRBV) 1, similar CDR3 sequences, and joining region (BJ) 2S3. To determine the range of conservation and disease-specificity of CDR3-sequences, we analyzed the TCRBV1-J2S3 repertoire from 33 healthy HLA-B27+ individuals, patients with various types of spondyloarthropathies (SpA), and with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by CDR3-spectratyping. After collection and database submission of all available TCRB-CDR3 from HLA-B27-restricted or SpA-derived T cells, we systematically screened the entire human sequence…