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TCR repertoire of effector memory T cells in AA
fusions expose T cells to multiple foreign epitopes.37 A group of 5 pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) patients, 10 sickle cell disease (SCD) subjects, and 8 myelodysplastic (MDS) patients who had been heavily transfused before sampling were studied for CD8+CD57+ cell expansion and Vβ usage (Online Supplementary Table S1). No variations were observed in CD8+CD57+ cell frequencies when PRCA, MDS, and SCD patients were compared to healthy sub- jects (22.8±25.1% vs. 21.6±9.7% vs. 30.6±28.3% vs.
13.3±12.6%, respectively; P=0.216) (Online Supplementary Figure S6A). Vβ skewing was described in 4 PRCA patients in 1-8 subgroups, in all 8 MDS subjects in 1-4 Vβ families, and in 7 SCD patients in 1-5 subgroups (Online Supplementary Figure S6B). Oligoclonal expansion was described in 91% of cases and subjects without skewing did not present effector memory T-cell expansion. Subsequently, we combined all subjects and divided them according to their transfusion history and the presence of
A
B
Figure 3. Characterization of Vβ/Jβ plot, CDR3 size and DJ length profiles in healthy donors by deep sequencing. (A) T-cell receptor β variable (TRBV)/T-cell receptor β joining (TRBJ) plots showed a “citylike” landscape for total CD4+ and CD8+ cell populations in healthy subjects (HC). (B) The size of the complementarity region 3 (CDR3) and DJ length profiles were also defined, showing similar features in CD4+ and CD8+ cells.
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