T-Cell Receptor Excision Circle

**Semantic type:** Nucleic Acid, Nucleoside, or Nucleotide

**Definition:** The reciprocal product of T-cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement. Following TCR gene rearrangement the T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC) is maintained in the cell as a non-replicating episome. With each cell division the TREC is segregated to a single daughter cell and becomes diluted in the population. Recent TCR rearrangement can be detected by a spike in the number of TREC and can be used to quantify thymic T-cell output.

**Synonyms:** - T-Cell Receptor-Rearrangement Excision DNA Circle - TREC