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Peripheral clonal selection shapes the human γδ T-cell repertoire

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 14, pages 733–735 (2017)Cite this article

In a recent issue of Nature Immunology,9 Ravens and colleagues analyzed the largest available cohort of γδ T-cell repertoires, including more than 2 × 107 rearranged TCR sequences. This prospective longitudinal cohort study was possible thanks to recent technical advances in the comprehensive analysis of TCR repertoires using next-generation sequencing. Moreover, this study was designed to monitor the regeneration of T cell receptor gamma and delta repertoires in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) patients over 180 days. The study also included not only blood samples from alloHSCT patients who experienced cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation, which is a major complication of transplantation associated with γδ T-cell expansion,10 but also cord blood samples as important controls to provide information on the ontogeny and dynamics of the γδ T-cell repertoire.

The newly published data confirmed that the human adult blood γδ TCR repertoire is dominated by the usage of Vγ9 and Vδ2 TCR chains with high prevalence of the Vγ9–Jγ1.2 Vδ2 rearrangement.11 However, the cord blood control group exhibited a less pronounced bias toward Vγ9 and Vδ2 and an increase in Vγ2, Vγ3, Vγ4, Vγ5, Vδ1, Vδ3 and Vδ5 chain usage, confirming the previously reported preponderance of Vγ9-negative γδ T cells in neonates.1 This finding indicates that the bias toward Vγ9Vδ2 rearrangements is driven by postnatal proliferation likely in response to pathogen-derived phosphoantigens, which are well established and specific agonists of Vγ9Vδ2 TCR.12

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Acknowledgements

We thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PD/BD/105880/2014 to BDL; and PTDC/DTP-PIC/4931/2014 to BS-S) and the Ligue Contre le Cancer and Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (to JD-M) for funding.

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  1. Julie Déchanet-Merville and Bruno Silva-Santos: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, 1649-028, Portugal

    Biagio Di Lorenzo & Bruno Silva-Santos

  2. Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, 1649-028, Portugal

    Biagio Di Lorenzo

  3. ImmunoConcept, CNRS UMR 5164, Equipe Labelisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, F-33000, France

    Julie Déchanet-Merville

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  1. Biagio Di Lorenzo
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  3. Bruno Silva-Santos
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Correspondence to Julie Déchanet-Merville or Bruno Silva-Santos.

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Di Lorenzo, B., Déchanet-Merville, J. & Silva-Santos, B. Peripheral clonal selection shapes the human γδ T-cell repertoire. Cell Mol Immunol 14, 733–735 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2017.51

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