A reliable and simplified sj/beta-TREC ratio quantification method for human thymic output measurement

作者：Ferrando Martinez Sara; Franco Jaime M; Ruiz Mateos Ezequiel; Hernandez Ana; Ordonez Antonio; Gutierrez Encarnacion; Leal Manuel^*

来源：Journal of Immunological Methods, 2010, 352(1-2): 111-117.

DOI：10.1016/j.jim.2009.11.007

• Sj-TREC
• D beta J beta-TREC
• TREC ratio
• Intrathymic proliferation
• HIV
• Human thymic function

Current techniques to peripherally assess thymic function are: the signal-joint T-cell receptor excision circle (sj-TREC) level measurement and the naive T cell and CD31 + TREC-rich subset determination. However, all of them are indirect approaches and none could be considered a direct recent thymic emigrant (RTE) marker. To overcome their limitations, Dion et al. (2004) described the sj/beta-TREC ratio that allows the peripheral quantification of the double negative to double positive intrathymic proliferation step. Nevertheless, the protocol described is expensive, sample and time-consuming, thus, limiting its usefulness. In this study, we describe a simplified protocol that reduces from 33 to 9 the amount of PCR reaction needed but maintaining the sensitivity and reproducibility of the original technique. In addition, we corroborated the effectiveness of our technique as an accurate thymic output-related marker by correlating the peripheral sj/beta-TREC ratio with a direct measurement of thymic function as the percentage of double positive thymocytes (r = 0.601, p < 0.001).

• 出版日期2010-1-31