title: Extensive junctional diversity of gamma delta T-cell receptors expressed by T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias: implications for the detection of minimal residual disease.
abstract: Rearrangements, junctional regions and expression of T-cell receptor (TcR)-gamma and TcR-delta genes were analyzed in thirteen TcR-gamma delta + T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALL). All TcR-gamma genes were rearranged except for one deleted allele and one allele in germline configuration. The expressed TcR-gamma protein chains showed a preference for V gamma l (11/13), J gamma 2.3 (7/13) and C gamma 2 (8/13). Furthermore, the TcR-gamma combinatorial repertoire appears to be even more limited by the fact that particular V gamma genes are preferentially used in TcR-gamma 1 or TcR-gamma 2 derived receptors, i.e. in disulfide-linked or non-disulfide-linked TcR-gamma delta receptors. The combinatorial repertoire of the expressed TcR-delta genes was homogeneous, as all thirteen T-ALL expressed V delta 1-D delta-J delta 1-C delta protein chains. In contrast to the limited combinatorial repertoire of the TcR-gamma and TcR-delta genes, the junctional diversity of both TcR genes was extensive due to insertion of N-region, P-region, and D delta gene nucleotides in addition to deletion of nucleotides by trimming. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-mediated amplification and subsequent direct sequencing, we determined the junctional region sequences of all TcR-gamma and TcR-delta rearrangements. Sequence analysis showed that in the TcR-gamma junctional regions insertion varied from 0 to 25 nucleotides (average 8.0) and deletion from 1 to 27 nucleotides (average 8.7). In TcR-delta junctional regions, nucleotide insertion varied from 5 to 47 nucleotides (average 25.5) and deletion from 0 to 29 nucleotides (average 6.2) per junctional region. In general, the N-region nucleotides were the most prominent element in the junctional regions, i.e. 97% of the TcR-gamma and 55% of the TcR-delta junctional regions. D delta genes contributed significantly (40%) to the TcR-delta junctional diversity, whereas P-regions were hardly found in both TcR genes. Altogether, the junctional regions of TcR-delta genes were far more diverse than the junctional regions of TcR-gamma genes. With respect to the new methods of detecting minimal residual disease (MRD) in lymphoid malignancies utilizing PCR-mediated amplification of the junctional regions of TcR genes, our data indicate that this MRD-PCR analysis will generally be more sensitive if TcR-delta instead of TcR-gamma junctional-region-specific probes are used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University Hospital Dijkzigt/Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Breit
authors.forename: I L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Wolvers-Tettero
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hählen
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: van Wering
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: van Dongen
mesh_terms: D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D001483:Base Sequence; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D015329:Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte; D006801:Humans; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta