The following is a summary of “Composition and diversity analysis of the TCR CDR3 repertoire in patients with idiopathic orbital inflammation using high-throughput sequencing,” published in the December 2023 issue of Ophthalmology by Fang et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study using high-throughput sequencing technology to explore the differences in T-cell receptor (TCR) expression between individuals with idiopathic orbital inflammation (IOI) and healthy controls. IOI, the 3rd most prevalent orbital disease, features nonspecific inflammation potentially driven by T-cell immune responses.
They enrolled a total of 19 subjects in the study, categorizing them into the idiopathic orbital inflammation group (IOI group, n = 13) and the healthy control group (HC group, n = 6). Within the IOI group, participants were divided into the glucocorticoid therapy-sensitive group (IOI(EF) group, n = 6) and the glucocorticoid therapy ineffective group (IOI(IN) group, n = 7) based on the efficacy of glucocorticoid therapy. High-throughput TCR sequencing was conducted on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from IOI patients and healthy controls using 5’ RACE technology combined with Unique Identifier (UID) digital tag correction technology. The analysis focused on TCR CDR3 region diversity, sharing patterns, and differential sequences between the IOI and HC groups and between the IOI(EF) and IOI(IN) groups.
The results showed a notable decrease in TCR CDR3 diversity within the IOI group compared to the HC group, with a significant disparity in V gene utilization. Within the IOI(EF) subgroup, TCR CDR3 diversity was markedly lower than that in the IOI(IN) subgroup, and there were notable differences in the frequencies of V and J gene use. Furthermore, an observation revealed the presence of 133 shared nucleotide sequences among all IOI samples, from which two sequences with elevated expression were identified through screening.
They concluded that abnormal T-cell clones in IOI patients suggested a link between TCR diversity and glucocorticoid response, offering insights into disease management.
Source: bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-023-03248-x
