title: T-cell receptor gene expression in tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: The T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire expression of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from 19 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) biopsies was compared with those of lymphocytes from 18 control nasopharyngeal biopsies. mRNA was extracted from these lymphocytes and the cDNA transcribed. A panel of 18 V alpha- and 21 V beta-specific primers was used to detect the TCR gene use from cDNA. The use of V alpha and V beta genes was restricted in TILs compared with lymphocytes from biopsies. The frequencies of V alpha 2, V alpha 3, V alpha 9, V alpha 10, V alpha 11, V alpha 13, V alpha 14, V alpha 15, V beta 11, V beta 15 and V beta 20 were decreased and the frequencies of V alpha 10 [Pc = 0.04; relative risk (RR) = 0.05], V alpha 11 (Pc = 0.02; RR = 0.07), V alpha 13 (Pc = 0.002; RR = 0), V alpha 14 (Pc = 0.04; RR = 0.05), V beta 14 (Pc = 0.001; RR = 0.03) and V beta 20 (Pc = 0.001; RR = 0.03) remained significantly reduced after correction for the number of families typed. The frequency of V alpha 17 was higher in NPC biopsies than in NPC PBLs (P = 0.05), and the frequency of V beta 15 was lower in NPC biopsies than in NPC PBLs (P = 0.02). The frequencies of V alpha 17 and V alpha 18 in HLA-B46+ patients were significantly lower (P = 0.009; P = 0.044) than in B46+ controls. The results suggest that the restriction of TCR gene use in NPC patients may be important in NPC pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015870:Gene Expression; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015235:HLA-B Antigens; C080311:HLA-B46 antigen; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta