T-cell receptor repertoire in human germinal centres.

A search for an antigen-driven expansion of T lymphocytes in the inflamed joints in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have been going on for decades. We here analyzed the human germinal centre T-cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta gene usage with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with sequence analysis, to address the question of clonality in tonsils and synovial tissue from RA patients. Our data show a large degree of TCR heterogeneity in both these histological structures. Furthermore, clonally related T cells were found within different closely located germinal centres indicating either an active T-cell migration between germinal centres (GC) or that a T-cell clone may seed more than one GC.