BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China.
Cell Biol Toxicol. 2018 Dec;34(6):441-457. doi: 10.1007/s10565-018-9426-0. Epub 2018 Feb 27.
The diversity of T and B cells in terms of their receptor sequences is huge in the vertebrate's immune system and provides broad protection against the vast diversity of pathogens. Immune repertoire is defined as the sum of T cell receptors and B cell receptors (also named immunoglobulin) that makes the organism's adaptive immune system. Before the emergence of high-throughput sequencing, the studies on immune repertoire were limited by the underdeveloped methodologies, since it was impossible to capture the whole picture by the low-throughput tools. The massive paralleled sequencing technology suits perfectly the researches on immune repertoire. In this article, we review the history of immune repertoire studies, in terms of technologies and research applications. Particularly, we discuss several aspects of challenges in this field and highlight the efforts to develop potential solutions, in the era of high-throughput sequencing of the immune repertoire.
在脊椎动物的免疫系统中，T 细胞和 B 细胞的受体序列多样性非常大，为广泛抵御各种病原体提供了广泛的保护。免疫库定义为 T 细胞受体和 B 细胞受体（也称为免疫球蛋白）的总和，构成了机体的适应性免疫系统。在高通量测序出现之前，由于低通量工具不可能捕捉到全貌，因此免疫库的研究受到了方法学发展不完善的限制。大规模平行测序技术非常适合免疫库的研究。本文从技术和研究应用的角度回顾了免疫库研究的历史。特别地，我们讨论了该领域的几个挑战方面，并强调了在免疫库高通量测序时代开发潜在解决方案的努力。
