Molecular analysis of T cell clonotypes in muscle-infiltrating lymphocytes from patients with human T lymphotropic virus type 1 polymyositis

Epidemiological studies have shown that a correlation may exist between human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection and a form of polymyositis (PM). To characterize muscle-infiltrating lymphocytes (MILs) from patients with HTLV-1 PM, we examined the T cell receptor (TCR) beta-chain variable region repertoire and clonotype of MILs and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 3 patients, using TCR complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length spectratyping and DNA sequencing. Immunohistochemical studies showed that MILs from patients with HTLV-1 PM contain both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Although some clonotypes observed in PBMC were also found in MILs in all patients examined, MILs consisted predominantly of locally expanded clones. One clonotype in MILs was derived from human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A*02/Tax11-19 tetramer-positive cells, the CDR3 motif of which contains amino acid residues for HLA-A*02/Tax peptide-TCR interaction. We conclude that certain T cell clones proliferate in the muscle lesions of HTLV-1 PM and may contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease.