[Alpha genes of the T cell receptor: a possible implication in genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis]

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease in which 60% of patients are DR2 (versus 20% in controls). Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) associated with T cell receptor alpha-chain and beta-chain genes have been analysed in a sample of 46 MS patients and compared with those of 142 controls. The alpha-chain gene polymorphism is localized to the V-J region and consists of 3 Bgl II alleles (alpha a = 3.2 kb; alpha b = 2.9 kb; alpha c = 2.8 kb). A significant difference was found in the distribution of these three alleles since 97% of DR2 patients versus 60% in DR2 non-MS individuals were found to be homozygotes alpha a/alpha a. These results suggest the influence of T cell antigen receptor germ line repertoire on the etiopathology of this disease.