Laboratory and Data Analysis Methods for Characterization of Human B Cell Repertoires by High-Throughput DNA...

High-throughput DNA sequencing techniques have greatly accelerated the pace of research into the repertoires of antibody and T cell receptor gene rearrangements that confer antigen specificity to adaptive immune responses. Studies of aging-related changes in human B cell repertoires have benefited from the ability to detect and quantify thousands to millions of B cell clones in human samples, and study the mutational lineages and isotype switching relationships within each clonal lineage. Correlation of repertoire analysis with antibody gene data from antigen-specific B cells is poised to give much greater insight into clinically relevant B cell responses and memory storage. Here, we describe strategies for preparing and analyzing human antibody gene libraries for studying B cell repertoires.