Expression of the T-cell receptor gamma-chain gene products on the surface of peripheral T cells and T-cell blasts generated by allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction.

The gamma-chain genes of the T-cell receptors form a family of related genes that are specifically expressed and somatically rearranged in T cells. Using poly- and monoclonal anti-gamma antibodies, we studied the cell-surface expression of the gamma-chain gene products in mouse peripheral T cells as well as in the T-cell blasts generated by allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions. The gamma chains are expressed in the Lyt2-,L3T4- subsets of these T-cell populations as disulfide-linked heterodimers. Whereas the electrophoretic mobility and the N-glycosylation of the spleen and lymph-node gamma chains are indistinguishable from those of the reported thymocyte gamma chain, a minor fraction of the T blasts generated by allogeneic stimulation of B10 lymph-node T cells with B10.BR spleen cells seems to express gamma chains with distinct properties. This suggests that the mixed lymphocyte culture conditions exert a selective effect on the expression of gamma chains among peripheral T-cell populations.