High prevalence of low affinity peptide-MHC II tetramer-negative effectors during polyclonal CD4+ T cell responses

T cell affinity for antigen initiates adaptive immunity. However, the contribution of low affinity cells to a response is unknown as it has not been possible to assess the entire affinity range of a polyclonal T cell repertoire. In this study, we used a highly sensitive two-dimensional binding assay to identify low affinity cells in polyclonal autoreactive and pathogen-reactive CD4(+) T cell populations specific for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) antigens, respectively. Low affinity CD4(+) T cells, below detection with peptide-major histocompatibility complex class II tetramers, were at least as frequent as high affinity responders and contributed significant effector cytokines in both primary antigen-specific responses. We further demonstrated that MOG- and LCMV-specific CD4(+) T cells possessed similarly broad ranges in their affinities (>100-fold wide), only differing in the frequencies of low and high affinity cells. Thus, low as well as high affinity CD4(+) T cells are critical effectors in autoimmune and pathogen-specific responses.