title: Highly clonal regulatory T-cell population in follicular lymphoma - inverse correlation with the diversity of CD8+T cells.
abstract: The immune microenvironment in follicular lymphoma (FL) plays an important role in controlling disease characteristics. To characterize the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire in follicular lymphoma (FL) tissues, we applied a next-generation sequencing platform and deeply sequenced TCR cDNAs of T-cell subset populations present in pretreatment FL biopsy specimens. T regulatory cell (Treg) TCRs in FL tissues revealed a highly oligoclonal expansion compared to those in control lymph nodes. Furthermore, an inverse correlation was observed between the diversity of Tregand CD8+TCRs in FL specimens. Interestingly, a tumor from an FL patient, who had not received anticancer treatment for more than 10 years, was found to have missense mutations in the peptide-binding domain of both human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II molecules, which might have presented tumor-specific antigens and enhanced host immune responses. Although further verification is required, our data suggest that the T-cell repertoire is skewed and restricted in FL and support the evolving understanding of the microenvironment in this disease.
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Girish
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Venkataraman
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Jiaying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Kazuma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kiyotani
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Sonali
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Magdeline
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montoya
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA ; Department of Surgery; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: Section of Hematology/Oncology; Department of Medicine; The University of Chicago ; Chicago, IL USA.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kline
keywords: T-cell receptor (TCR); follicular lymphoma (FL); next-generation sequencing (NGS); tumor microenvironment