Quantifying Distribution of Flow Cytometric TCR-V? Usage with Economic Statistics.

ABSTRACT: Measuring changes of the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is important to many fields of medicine. Flow cytometry is a popular technique to study the TCR repertoire, as it quickly provides insight into the TCR-V? usage among well-defined populations of T cells. However, the interpretation of the flow cytometric data remains difficult, and subtle TCR repertoire changes may go undetected. Here, we introduce a novel means for analyzing the flow cytometric data on TCR-V? usage. By applying economic statistics, we calculated the Gini-TCR skewing index from the flow cytometric TCR-V? analysis. The Gini-TCR skewing index, which is a direct measure of TCR-V? distribution among T cells, allowed us to track subtle changes of the TCR repertoire among distinct populations of T cells. Application of the Gini-TCR skewing index to the flow cytometric TCR-V? analysis will greatly help to gain better understanding of the TCR repertoire in health and disease.

SUBMITTER: van der Geest KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4414620 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature