High diversity of the immune repertoire in humanized NOD.SCID.γc−/− mice

Abstract

The diversity of the human immune repertoire and how it relates to a functional immune response has not yet been studied in detail in humanized NOD.SCID.gammac(-/-) immunodeficient mice. Here, we used a multiplex PCR on genomic DNA to quantify the combinatorial diversity of all possible V-J rearrangements at the TCR-beta chain and heavy chain Ig locus. We first show that the combinatorial diversity of the TCR-beta chain generated in the thymus was well preserved in the periphery, suggesting that human T cells were not vastly activated in mice, in agreement with phenotypic studies. We then show that the combinatorial diversity in NOD.SCID.gammac(-/-) mice reached 100% of human reference samples for both the TCR and the heavy chain of Ig. To document the functionality of this repertoire, we show that a detectable but weak HLA-restricted cellular immune response could be elicited in reconstituted mice after immunization with an adenoviral vector expressing HCV envelope glycoproteins. Altogether, our results suggest that humanized mice express a diversified repertoire and are able to mount antigen-specific immune responses.