Clonal repertoires of virus-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes are shared in mucosal and systemic compartments during chronic simian immunodeficiency virus infection in rhesus monkeys.

Because it is thought that mucosal tissues play a fundamental role in early HIV/SIV infection, it is crucial to understand the virus-specific responses in mucosal tissues to facilitate devising strategies to prevent and control these infections. We have employed TCR repertoire analyses to define the clonal composition of a dominant SIV epitope-specific CD8(+) T cell population in mucosal and systemic compartments of SIV-infected rhesus monkeys during both acute and chronic infection. We show that the CD8(+) T cell repertoire in mucosal tissues of uninfected rhesus monkeys is oligoclonal, whereas the CD8(+) T cell repertoire in blood is polyclonal.