High-throughput sequencing reveals the diversity of TCR β chain CDR3 repertoire in patients with severe acne.

Acne is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, and the inflammation immune response runs through all stages of acne lesions. In this study, we use a combination of multiplex-PCR and high-throughput sequencing technologies to analyze T cell receptor β chain CDR3 (complementarity-determining region 3) in peripheral blood isolated from severe acne patients. Once compared with healthy controls, we propose to identify acne-relevant CDR3 peptides. Our results reveal that the diversity of T cell receptor β chain (TRB) CDR3 sequences in the peripheral blood of the severe acne vulgaris (SA) group differed from that of the control group. In addition, we find 10 TRB CDR3 sequences, amino acid sequences and V-J combinations with significantly different expressions between the SA group and the non-acne (NA) group (P < 0.0001). These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the role of immunity in the pathogenesis of acne and may serve as biomarkers for evaluating risk or prognosis of severe acne disease in future.