PERIPHERAL LYMPHOID DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION IN TCR MUTANT MICE

We describe the development and function of the peripheral lymphoid sy stem of mutant mice rendered deficient in either ce or gammadelta T ce lls via targeting of TCR genes in embryonic stem cells. in the spleen of alphabeta T cell-deficient mice, gammadelta T cells do not compensa te in numbers for the lack of alphabeta T cells, but B cells do. Alpha beta T cell-deficient mice are unable to mount an antibody response to ovalbumin and do not reject skin allografts. Natural killer cell func tion is not impaired in any of the mutant mice. TCR mutant mice will p rove useful in dissecting diffferential functions of alphabeta and gam madelta T cells in vivo.