Monozygotic twins concordantly affected by psoriasis exhibit a similar shift in the T-cell receptor Vβ-repertoire of lesional compared to circulating lymphocytes

Recent studies concerning the possible involvement of (super-) antigens in the pathogenesis of psoriasis have been hampered by 1) difficulties in accounting for the influence of different HLA backgrounds and 2) lack of (semi-) quantitative analysis of the complete receptor-repertoire in lesional lymphocytes. We therefore compared the T-cell receptor V beta-repertoire in blood and skin of two monozygotic twin pairs concordantly affected by psoriasis by means of a semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction. The twin pairs showed parallel shifts in the lesional receptor-repertoire with regard to some, but not all, variable regions. These shifts differed between the twin pairs studied and might be triggered by antigens rather than superantigens. The novel polymerase chain reaction technique employed allows for adequate compensation of amplification efficiency for different variable reqion families and therefore represents valuable progress in the technology applied in T-cell receptor-repertoire analysis in general.