ANTIGEN-SELECTED T-CELL RECEPTOR DIVERSITY AND SELF-NONSELF HOMOLOGY

Recent studies indicate that the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire sele cted by certain antigenic peptide-MHC combinations can be extremely di verse. This is in contrast to earlier studies reporting T-cell respons es which were limited in terms of TCR diversity. In this viewpoint, we suggest these variations in TCR diversity may be explained by taking into account the homology between some antigens and self proteins to w hich T cells are tolerant.