{"product_id":"2940013305694","title":"On the Composition of the Preimmune Repertoire of T Cells Specific for Peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complex Ligands","description":"Millions of T cells are produced in the thymus, each expressing a unique α\/β T cell receptor (TCR) capable of binding to a foreign peptide in the binding groove of a host major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule. T cell–mediated immunity to infection is due to the proliferation and differentiation of rare clones in the preimmune repertoire that by chance express TCRs specific for peptide-MHC (pMHC) ligands derived from the microorganism. Here we review recent findings that have altered our understanding of how the preimmune repertoire is established. Recent structural studies indicate that a germline-encoded tendency of TCRs to bind MHC molecules contributes to the MHC bias of T cell repertoires. It has also become clear that the preimmune repertoire contains functionally heterogeneous subsets including recent thymic emigrants, mature naive phenotype cells, memory phenotype cells, and natural regulatory T cells. In addition, sensitive new detection methods have revealed that the repertoire of naive phenotype T cells consists of distinct pMHC-specific populations that consistently vary in size in different individuals. The implications of these new findings for the clonal selection theory, self-tolerance, and immunodominance are discussed.","brand":"Annual Reviews","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47165788324080,"sku":"2940013305694","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013305694_p0.jpg?v=1763579236","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013305694","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}