title: T-cell repertoire complexity after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.
abstract: We analyzed the T-cell repertoire in patients transplanted with bone marrow from an HLA identical sibling by determining the TCR diversity through Vbeta-CDR3-size spectratyping with Vbeta/Cbeta- and Vbeta/Jbeta-specific primers. Using the Vbeta/Cbeta primers, we observed limited TCR diversity only in recipients of a T-cell-depleted graft, whereas the TCR diversity of patients transplanted with an unmanipulated graft seemed to be indistinguishable from the one of a normal individual. However, with Vbeta/Jbeta-specific primers, increase of the resolution by approximately 10-fold also allowed the detection of imbalances in the TCR repertoire of recipients of an unmanipulated graft. This demonstrates that when high numbers of T cells are cotransfused with marrow, the TCR repertoire is more complete but still not as complete as in normal individuals, thereby emphasizing the important role of coinfused mature T cells in the restoration of the T-cell compartment after bone marrow transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Helg
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chapuis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jeannet
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roosnek
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002999:Clone Cells; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta