Flow cytometric Vβ repertoire analysis using Vβ mAb mixtures in mature T-cell proliferation patients.

(A) In healthy controls, 60% to 65% of CD3⁺ cells are recognized in double immunofluorescence stainings with 6 different Vβ mAbs mixtures in combination with CD3-PerCP.10 (B) Using comparable stainings in T-CLL patient 98-086, 99% of CD3⁺ cells are recognized by Vβ mAbs mix 1, whereas all other 5 mixes only recognize less than 1% of all CD3⁺cells. This indicates the presence of a large, presumably clonal CD3⁺ T-cell population with single Vβ expression. (C) Double immunofluorescence stainings with the 6 Vβ mAbs mixtures resulted in less than 5% CD3⁺/Vβ⁺ cells in T-CLL patient 98-002, suggesting the presence of a large, presumably clonal CD3⁺ T-cell population with single Vβ expression not recognized by any of the Vβ mAbs in the current panel.