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Background: Adaptative immune repertoire diversity in vertebrate species is generated by recombination of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) genes in the immunoglobulin (IG) loci of B lymphocytes and in the T cell receptor (TR) loci of T lymphocytes. These V-J and V-D-J gene rearrangements at the DNA level involve recombination signal sequences (RSS). Whereas many data exist, they are scattered in non specialized resources with different nomenclatures (eg. flat files) and are difficult to extract. Description: IMGT/GeneInfo is an online information system that provides, through a user-friendly interface, exhaustive information resulting from the complex mechanisms of T cell receptor V-J and V-DJ recombinations. T cells comprise two populations which express the αβand γδ TR, respectively. The first version of the system dealt with the Homo sapiens and Mus musculus TRA and TRB loci whose gene rearrangements allow the synthesis of the αβ TR chains. In this paper, we present the second version of IMGT/GeneInfo where we complete the database for the Homo sapiens and Mus musculus TRG and TRD loci along with the introduction of a quality control procedure for existing and new data. We also include new functionalities to the four loci analysis, giving, to date, a very informative tool which allows to work on V(D)J genes of all TR loci in both human and mouse species. IMGT/GeneInfo provides more than 59,000 rearrangement combinations with a full gene description which is freely available at http://imgt.cines.fr/ GeneInfo. Conclusion: IMGT/GeneInfo allows all TR information sequences to be in the same spot, and are now available within two computer-mouse clicks. This is useful for biologists and bioinformaticians for the study of T lymphocyte V(D)J gene rearrangements and their applications in immune response analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recently, a new subset of CD4+T helper cell termed Follicular helper T cells (Tfh), which play a pivotal role in B cell activation and differentiation in lymphoid structures, has been reported to participate in some certain autoimmune diseases. But whether Tfh cells are involved in the pathogenesis of VMC remains unclear. Methods: Male BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally (i.p) infected with CVB3 to establish VMC models. Control mice were treated with phosphate-buffered saline i.p. On 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 weeks post injection, frequencies of splenic Tfh cells were determined by flow cytometric analysis, productions of IL-21 and anti-adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) autoantibody were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Tofurther investigate the effects of Tfh cells, VMC mice were treated with Anti-IL-21 neutralizing antibody. Heart pathology was examined histologically, the frequencies of Tfh cells and the expressions of anti-ANT autoantibody were investigated after anti-IL-21 intervention. Spearman analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between the frequencies of Tfh cells and IL-21 levels with anti-ANT autoantibody. Results: The percentage of Tfh cells significantly increased in VMC mice from 1 W to 6 W, the serum level of IL-21 and ANT autoantibody were also significantly increased in VMC mice. Neutralization of IL-21 with anti-IL-21 can ameliorate the myocardium inflammation, decrease Tfh cells and ANT autoantibody after IL-21 antibody intervention compared with those of the control (P < 0.05). Both of the frequencies of Tfh cells and IL-21 levels were positively correlated with anti-ANT antibody levels (R = 0.758, P < 0.05; R = 0.88, P < 0.01, respectively). Conclusions: Those results suggest that Tfh cells and IL-21 might involve in the pathogenesis of VMC and play an important role in anti-ANT autoantibody production. Targeting the Tfh cell and IL-21 may be a new therapeutic target for the treatment of CVB3-induced VMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]