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Restricted Autoantigen Recognition Associated with Deletional and Adaptive Regulatory Mechanisms

John A. Gebe^*, Betty B. Yue^*, Kelly A. Unrath, Ben A. Falk^* and Gerald T. Nepom^*,

^*Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle WA 98101; Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331; and Department of Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle WA 98195

Autoimmune diabetes (T1D) is characterized by CD4⁺ T cell reactivity to a variety of islet-associated Ags. At-risk individuals, genetically predisposed to T1D, often have similar T cell reactivity, but nevertheless fail to progress to clinically overt disease. To study the immune tolerance and regulatory environment permissive for such autoreactive T cells, we expressed TCR transgenes derived from two autoreactive human T cells, 4.13 and 164, in HLA-DR4 transgenic mice on a C57BL/6-derived "diabetes-resistant" background. Both TCR are responsive to an immunodominant epitope of glutamic acid decarboxylase 65_555–567, which is identical in sequence between humans and mice, is restricted by HLA-DR4, and is a naturally processed self Ag associated with T1D. Although both TCR use the identical V and Vβ genes, differing only in CDR3, we found stark differences in the mechanisms utilized in vivo in the maintenance of immune tolerance. A combination of thymic deletion (negative selection), TCR down-regulation, and peripheral activation-induced cell death dominated the phenotype of 164 T cells, which nevertheless still maintain their Ag responsiveness in the periphery. In contrast, 4.13 T cells are much less influenced by central and deletional tolerance mechanisms, and instead display a peripheral immune deviation including differentiation into IL-10-secreting Tr1 cells. These findings indicate a distinct set of regulatory alternatives for autoreactive T cells, even within a single highly restricted HLA-peptide-TCR recognition profile.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. John A. Gebe, Department of Diabetes, Benaroya Research Institute, 1201 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. E-mail address: jgebe{at}benaroyaresearch.or.