Oligoclonal Expression of T-Cell Receptor Beta Variable Genes in Normal Human Endometrium

In sp ite of thei r key rol e in various immunological processes occ urring in theendometr ium, t ce lls- espec ially ap+ subtype - res iding in this mucosal tissue , have notbeen extensively explore d. we present here the profile of exp resse d genes for variableregi on of pchain of t cell receptor (tcr) in normal endometrium as compared toperipheral blood. samples from endometrium were tak en from normal fertile womenduring routine check-up by pi pelle pipette or afte r hysterectomy operat ion. total rnafrom both blood and endometria l samples was extracted and rt-pcr using by ge nespecifi c primers was perform ed. after southern blotting, hybr idization withradiolabelled speci fic probe and autoradiography, relat ive expression of each byfamil y was determined . clonal expansion s of the over-expressed genes were studied bydetermining their cdr3 length polymorphi sm. a total of 12 blood and 14 endometria lsamples wer e collected. onl y one tc rby ge ne (tcrby7) was expressedsignificantly more and 3 gen es less frequ ently in the endometrium compared to blood.al so, two other ge nes (tcrby io and 12) were found marginally more frequent in theendometr ium. as for their clonali ty, all 3 tcrby ge nes examined here showe d arath er restricted (o ligoc lonal) and in some cases, very restr icted (probably mon oclonal)pattern in the endometrium in contrast to polyclonal pattern s in the blood. our resultsindic ate the similariti es between t cell s res iding in di fferent mucosal tissues andsupport their common recru itm ent and fun ctional potentials. moreover, our find ingsprovide a basis for future inves tiga tions about endometr ial t cell involvement and the iranti gen specificities in different gynecologica l problems.