T Cell Receptor Rearrangement in NKT Cells Differentiated from Cord Blood CD34+ Cells

Yun-Jae Jung, So-Youn Woo

Copyright ⓒ 2003. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jun 30, 2003

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the time of rearrangement of the TCR gene in the process of NKT cell differentiation from CD34+ human cord blood cells in vitro.

Methods

We isolated the CD34+ human cord blood cells and induced the differentiation of NKT cells by liquid culture including IL-15, FL and SCF for 30 days. In order to detect the time of TCR gene rearrangement in differentiated NKT cell, we performed PCR for TCR-rearrangement excision circles (TRECs) with isolated DNA.

Results

Signal joint TREC first appeared on day 4 or day 8 and continuously existed until day 30. Between day 9 and day 21, cells showed high output of coding joint TRECs after signal joint rearrangement.

Conclusion

In differentiated NKT cells, TCR gene rearrangement started within a week after culture started and mostly occurred in 2 to 3 weeks after culture started.

Keywords: NKT cell; CK34+ cells; TCR gene rearrangement