T-cell repertoire complexity after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.
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.
Roux
E
E
Division of Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire, Geneva, Switzerland.
Helg
C
C
Chapuis
B
B
Jeannet
M
M
Roosnek
E
E
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*
D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta