A clonal view of αβ T cell responses

Quantitative analyses of antigen (Ag)-specific alpha beta T cell populations have provided a large body of information on the natural course of T cell immune responses. New tools are now available to determine the clonal composition of Ag-specific pools in individual responses, an approach which offers direct insights into the generation of T cell immune responses and establishment of protective immunity. The present review discusses the parameters that determine the composition of Ag-specific T cell responses. Emphasis is placed on the role of the naive alpha beta T cell repertoire and on the dynamics of individual Ag-specific T cell clones during the successive phases of an immune responses.