2 research outputs found
Assessing T cell clonal size distribution: a non-parametric approach
Clonal structure of the human peripheral T-cell repertoire is shaped by a
number of homeostatic mechanisms, including antigen presentation, cytokine and
cell regulation. Its accurate tuning leads to a remarkable ability to combat
pathogens in all their variety, while systemic failures may lead to severe
consequences like autoimmune diseases. Here we develop and make use of a
non-parametric statistical approach to assess T cell clonal size distributions
from recent next generation sequencing data. For 41 healthy individuals and a
patient with ankylosing spondylitis, who undergone treatment, we invariably
find power law scaling over several decades and for the first time calculate
quantitatively meaningful values of decay exponent. It has proved to be much
the same among healthy donors, significantly different for an autoimmune
patient before the therapy, and converging towards a typical value afterwards.
We discuss implications of the findings for theoretical understanding and
mathematical modeling of adaptive immunity.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 table