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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

T and B Cell Receptor Immune Repertoire Analysis using Next-generation Sequencing
Published on: January 12, 2021
Profiling the B/T cell receptor repertoire of lymphocyte derived cell lines
Kar-Tong Tan1, Ling-Wen Ding2, Qiao-Yang Sun1
1Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Background:
Clonal VDJ rearrangement of B/T cell receptors (B/TCRs) occurring during B/T lymphocyte development has been used as a marker to track the clonality of B/T cell populations.
Methods:
We systematically profiled the B/T cell receptor repertoire of 936 cancer cell lines across a variety of cancer types as well as 462 Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) transformed normal B lymphocyte lines using RNA sequencing data.
Results:
Rearranged B/TCRs were readily detected in cell lines derived from lymphocytes, and subclonality or potential biclonality were found in a number of blood cancer cell lines. Clonal BCR/TCR rearrangements were detected in several blast phase CML lines and unexpectedly, one gastric cancer cell line (KE-97), reflecting a lymphoid origin of these cells. Notably, clonality was highly prevalent in EBV transformed B lymphocytes, suggesting either transformation only occurred in a few B cells or those with a growth advantage dominated the transformed population through clonal evolution.
Conclusions:
Our analysis reveals the complexity and heterogeneity of the BCR/TCR rearrangement repertoire and provides a unique insight into the clonality of lymphocyte derived cell lines.
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