T-cell-receptor gene usage of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans-reactive periodontal CD4+ T cells from localized juvenile periodontitis patients and human peripheral blood leukocyte-reconstituted NOD/SCID mice.

We investigated the variable Valpha and Vbeta gene usage of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans-reactive periodontal CD4+ T cell receptors (TCR) from: (i) four A. actinomycetemcomitans-infected localized juvenile periodontitis (LJP) patients, (ii) four groups of A. actinomycetemcomitans-inoculated NOD/SCID mice engrafted with individual LJP-derived HuPBL and (iii) HuPBL samples of four LJP patients and two healthy control subjects, by quantitative PCR analyses.