Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The length distributions of the CDR3's of TCR and are also very
informative. Those for TCR and are both very narrow, as well as for
their combined length variations (Johnson and Wu, 1999). This can be the
consequence of their binding the complexes of processed peptides inside the
grooves of MHC class I or II molecules, which are relatively uniform in
shape and size. On the other hand, those for and are broader, especially
that for showing possibly a bimodal distribution (Fig. 1-18). TCR
chains with longer CDR3's, in combination with TCR
chains, may thus
bind foreign antigens directly (Melenhorst
et al
., 1999).
Figure 1-16
. Variability plot for human TCR chain variable region.
