IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system®

The international ImMunoGeneTics information system® (IMGT) (http://imgt.cines.fr), created in 1989, by the Laboratoire d'ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire LIGM (Université Montpellier II and CNRS) at Montpellier, France, is a high-quality integrated knowledge resource specializing in the immunoglobulins (IGs), T cell receptors (TRs), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of human and other vertebrates, and related proteins of the immune systems (RPI) that belong to the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) and to the MHC superfamily (MhcSF). IMGT includes several sequence databases (IMGT/LIGM-DB, IMGT/PRIMER-DB, IMGT/PROTEIN-DB and IMGT/MHC-DB), one genome database (IMGT/GENE-DB) and one three-dimensional (3D) structure database (IMGT/3Dstructure-DB), Web resources comprising 8000 HTML pages (IMGT Marie-Paule page), and interactive tools. IMGT data are expertly annotated according to the rules of the IMGT Scientific chart, based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts. IMGT tools are particularly useful for the analysis of the IG and TR repertoires in normal physiological and pathological situations. IMGT is used in medical research (autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, AIDS, leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas), veterinary research, biotechnology related to antibody engineering (phage displays, combinatorial libraries, chimeric, humanized and human antibodies), diagnostics (clonalities, detection and follow up of residual diseases) and therapeutical approaches (graft, immunotherapy and vaccinology). IMGT is freely available at http://imgt.cines.fr

Iodide and T4 kinetics in plasma, thyroid gland and skin of 10-day-old rats: effects of iodine deficiency

The effects of iodine deficiency on the peripheral metabolism of thyroid hormone in immature rat were evaluated by measuring the kinetics of iodide and thyroxine (T 4 ) in control and iodine-deficient 10-day-old rats. Iodine-deficient pups were obtained by giving the mother drinking water containing perchlorate; this anion is not transferred but prevents iodine transfer in the mother's milk. Labelled iodocompounds were measured in plasma, thyroid and skin for 48 h following intravenous injection of Na 131 I plus [ 125 I]T 4 . Data were interpreted by compartmental analysis. The iodide plasma clearance rate, plasma equivalent distribution volume, plasma concentration, production and iodine thyroid content of iodine-deficient rats were significantly lower (−29%, −31%, −84%, −89% and −87% respectively) than in control 10-day-old rats. The iodide thyroid uptake was reduced (−47%) but remained higher than the release of iodine as T 4 . Cutaneous iodine was lost much more quickly by iodine-deficient pups than by control pups, explaining the decreased iodide distribution volume. The parameters of T 4 metabolism were not changed by iodine deficiency, except for a slight but significant reduction of the thyroxinemia and T 4 pools (−13%). Thence, T 4 production was not significantly changed (about 8 pmol/h in control and iodine-deficient rats). The labelled T 4 curves in iodine-deficient and control skin were superimposed and the patterns of labelled T 3 derived from [ 125 I]T 4 were identical. Thus, the skin of immature rats converts T 4 to T 3 ; this process was not disturbed by iodine deficiency. The thyroid function of immature rats is particularly resistant to iodine deficiency, but the mechanisms remain unknown

IMGT-ONTOLOGY for Immunogenetics and Immunoinformatics

IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system® (http://imgt.cines.fr), is a high quality integrated knowledge resource specializing in immunoglobulins (IG), T cell receptors (TR), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and related proteins of the immune system (RPI) of human and other vertebrates, created in 1989, by the Laboratoire d'ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire LIGM. IMGT provides a common access to standardized data which include nucleotide and protein sequences, oligonucleotide primers, gene maps, genetic polymorphisms, specificities, 2D and 3D structures. IMGT consists of several sequence databases (IMGT/LIGM-DB, IMGT/MHC-DB, IMGT/PRIMER-DB), one genome database (IMGT/GENE-DB) and one three-dimensional structure database (IMGT/3Dstructure-DB), interactive tools for sequence analysis (IMGT/V-QUEST, IMGT/JunctionAnalysis, IMGT/PhyloGene, IMGT/Allele-Align), for genome analysis (IMGT/GeneSearch, IMGT/GeneView, IMGT/LocusView) and for 3D structure analysis (IMGT/StructuralQuery), and Web resources ("IMGT Marie-Paule page") comprising 8000 HTML pages. IMGT other accesses include SRS, FTP, search by BLAST, etc. By its high quality and its easy data distribution, IMGT has important implications in medical research (repertoire in autoimmune diseases, AIDS, leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas), veterinary research, genome diversity and genome evolution studies of the adaptive immune responses, biotechnology related to antibody engineering (scFv, phage displays, combinatorial libraries) and therapeutical approaches (grafts, immunotherapy)