Fig. 3

CDR3 length analysis of the T-cell receptor.

The repertoire of the variable region of the β chain (Vβ) in lymph nodes from young non-diseased (5-week-old, top row), phosphate buffered saline (PBS)-treated (middle row), or tolerized (bottom row) 5-month-old apoE knockout (KO) mice. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed according to “Materials and Methods”. The y-axis represents the fluorescent intensity and the x-axis the length of the amplified product. The framed values are the lengths (bp) of the PCR products in the major peaks. Observe that for the Vβ12 subfamily, only two populations are detected. In the group of PBS-injected mice, there are skewings of the Vβ profiles indicated by arrows. indicates expansions of clones over the Gaussian distribution, indicates decrease or disappearance of T-cell populations. These skewings are less common in the tolerized group. The profile of the Vβ 8.3 and 13 is altered in some mice, but not in the others, indicating that the disease does not recruit always the same clones.