Molecular rescue of tumour-specific T cell receptor idiotype from T cell lymphomas

Abstract

The T cell receptor (TCR) idiotype on T cell lymphomas can serve as a vaccine target. To clone the relevant genes, 5′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) was performed on 13 T cell lymphomas and nine control samples. Two polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were performed for each TCR chain (α and β) and the proportion of the clonal TCR sequence over the total number of TCR sequences was calculated. For α, the average proportions were 0.43 vs. 0.05. For β these were 0.44 and 0.04. The TCR was identified in 10 of 13 lymphoma samples. © 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.