Patent ID: 8883418

Claim:
A method of in vitro analysis of the diversity of the repertoire of T and/or B lymphocytes of an individual, from genomic DNA originating from a biological sample from said individual, comprising the following steps: (A) amplifying fragments of said genomic DNA by at least one multi-n-plex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with n≧2, carried out with n different pairs of primers in a single reaction, wherein (i) each of the n different pairs of primers consists of a sense primer which specifically hybridizes upstream of and/or in a given V or D gene and an antisense primer which specifically hybridizes downstream of and/or in a given J gene; (ii) at least two of the n different pairs of primers comprise (a) a first pair of a common sense primer and a first antisense primer, and a second pair of the common sense primer and a second antisense primer, wherein the first and second antisense primers are different, or (b) a first pair of a first sense primer and a common antisense primer, and a second pair of a second sense primer and the common antisense primer, wherein the first and second sense primers are different; (iii) the primers are thermodynamically compatible; and (iv) the primers are chosen in such a way that the fragments amplified with the first pair of primers can be distinguished from the fragments amplified with the second pair of primers; (B) detecting the amplification products obtained in step A; (C) analyzing the diversity of the repertoire of T and/or B lymphocytes of said individual by analyzing the diversity of the amplification products detected in step (B), wherein the diversity of the amplification products detected in step (B) corresponds to the diversity of the repertoire of T and/or B lymphocytes of said individual.