J Pediatr. 2016 Jun 30. pii: S0022-3476(16)30352-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.05.078. [Epub ahead of print]

High-Throughput Sequencing Reveals Immunological Characteristics of the TRB-/IgH-CDR3 Region of Umbilical Cord Blood.

Guo C¹, Wang Q¹, Cao X², Yang Y¹, Liu X³, An L¹, Cai R¹, Du M⁴, Wang G¹, Qiu Y⁴, Peng Z¹, Han J⁵, Ni S⁶, Tan X⁶, Jin L⁷, Yu S⁸, Wang H⁹, Wang C¹⁰, Wang X³, Ma X⁴.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To compare the differences of immunological characteristics between newborn and adults, we performed high-throughput sequencing to reveal the diversity of umbilical cord blood and adult peripheral blood at both T-cell receptor beta chain (TRB) and immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) levels.

STUDY DESIGN:

High-throughput sequencing was performed to analyze the expression of TRB-CDR3 and IGH-CDR3 in circulating T and B cells isolated from 20 healthy adults, 56 pregnant women, and 40 newborns.

RESULTS:

Our results revealed different immunological characteristics between newborn and adults, such as distinctive complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) lengths, usage bias of variable and joining segments, random nucleotide addition, a large number of unique CDR3 peptides, and a greater repertoire diversity. Moreover, each newborn had a distinctive TRB-/IGH-CDR3 repertoire that was independent of the maternal immune status.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study presents comprehensive, unrestricted profiles of the TRB/IGH-CDR3 repertoire of newborns, pregnant women, and healthy adults at a sequence-level resolution. Our data may contribute to a better understanding of the immune system of newborns and benefit the efficient application of umbilical cord blood transplantation in future.