Determination of thymic function directly from peripheral blood: a validated modification to an established method

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  2. Emeritus Professor Michael Sir Michael Rawlins
  3. Dr Angela Patterson
  4. Dr Arthur Pratt
  5. Dr Matthew Jefferson
  6. Professor John Isaacs
Author(s)Lorenzi AR, Patterson AM, Pratt A, Jefferson M, Chapman CE, Ponchel F, Isaacs JD
Publication type Article
JournalJournal of Immunological Methods
Year2008
Volume339
Issue2
Pages185-94
ISSN (print)0022-1759
ISSN (electronic)1872-7905
Full text is available for this publication:
The thymus contributes naive, self MHC reactive, self tolerant T cells to the peripheral immune system throughout life, albeit with a log-linear decline with age. Quantification of thymic function is clinically relevant in the setting of lymphoablation, but a phenotypic marker distinguishing recent thymic emigrants from long lived naive T cells remains elusive. T cell receptor excision circles (TREC) are present in thymocytes exiting the thymus and quantification of the most frequent of these, the deltarec-psiJalpha rearrangement has been widely used as a measure of recent thymic function. However, interpretation of results presented as TREC per cell has been criticised on the basis that extra-thymic cellular proliferation impacts on peripherally determined TREC numbers. TREC/ml is now considered to be more representative of thymic function than TREC/cell, especially where significant cellular proliferation occurs (e.g. during reconstitution following stem cell transplantation). Here we describe the validation of a novel variation to the established assay, directly quantifying TREC/ml from 300 microl whole blood. We show the assay to be reproducible, robust and stable longitudinally and we show equivalence of performance when compared with more standard assays. This assay particularly lends itself to the measurement of thymic function in children and where monitoring clinical variables is limited by tissue availability.
PublisherElsevier
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jim.2008.09.013
DOI10.1016/j.jim.2008.09.013
NotesArthritis Research Campaign/United Kingdom Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Netherlands
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