The utility of T-cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mice in medical research has been considerable, with applications ranging from basic biology all the way to translational and clinical investigations. Crossing of TCR transgenic mice with either recombination-activating gene (RAG)-1 or RAG-2 knockouts is frequently used to generate mice with a monoclonal T-cell repertoire. However, low level productive TCR rearrangement has been reported in RAG-deficient mice expressing transgenic TCRs. Using deep sequencing, we set out to directly examine and quantify the presence of these endogenous TCRs. Our demonstration that functional nontransgenic TCRs are present in nonmanipulated mice has wide reaching ramifications worthy of critical consideration.
Keywords: Immunological surveillance; T cells; T-cell receptor; VDJ recombination.
© 2018 Australasian Society for Immunology Inc.