CD8+ T-cell receptor beta-chain (TCRB) sequencing for Ankylosing Spondylitis patients and healthy controls. Homo sapiens

Understanding the CD8+ T cell repertoire of AS patients may shed light on the disease mechanism and subsequently may lead to the development of better diagnostic, prognostic tools, and therapeutic treatments. Only recently, with the development of high-throughput sequencing of lymphoid receptor genes, have comprehensive assessments of T cell repertoires become feasible. In this study we applied high-throughput sequencing to characterize comprehensively AS CD8+ T cell repertoires and compared them quantitatively with those of healthy individuals. We isolated CD8+ T cells from peripheral blood of five AS patients and two healthy donors and sequenced their T-cell receptor beta-chain (TCRB) genes.