Overexpression of the T-cell receptor beta-chain variable region TCRBV14 in HLA-A2-matched primary human melanomas

We have shown previously that peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of patients with metastatic melanoma include cytotoxic T-cell clones that recognize Melan-A/MART-1 in a HLA-A2-restricted fashion. Such clones preferentially use the variable (V) regions TCRBV14 or TCRBV7 in the beta-chain of their T-cell receptor (TCRB). It was not known, however, whether this finding is associated with the presence of the HLA-A2 allele in tumor tissue and whether evidence of the predominance of these TCRBV families can also be observed in primary tumor tissue. To address these issues, we have used a semiquantitative PCR to examine the TCRBV repertoire in six HLA-A2-matched primary melanomas in comparison with their autologous PBL. Although each patient had his or her own pattern of skewed TCRBV utilization, in all patients, T-cells that used TCRBV14 were significantly overrepresented in the neoplastic site compared with PBL. All of the primary tumors studied had detectable expression of Melan-A/MART-1 and gp100, and immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the presence of the HLA-A2 allele. Additional samples of Melan-A/MART-1-positive, gp100-positive primary melanomas from six non-HLA-A2 patients and four autologous normal skin controls failed to reveal a TCRBV14 predominance in such tissues. These results point to a role of TCRBV14 T lymphocytes in the HLA-A2-restricted immune recognition of primary melanomas.