TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of Ig κ light chain gene variable regions expressed in the rheumatoid synovial B cells
AU - Pyon, H. S.
AU - Ha-Lee, Y. M.
AU - Song, G. G.
AU - Sohn, J.
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Sequence analysis of antibody variable (V) regions can provide an insight regarding whether B cells have gone through an antigen-driven process of affinity maturation. In this study, we analyzed 16 V-regions of immunoglobulin (Ig) κ light chain genes obtained from a cDNA library of a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial tissue. A salient feature of our results is the high frequency utilization of germline VκI family genes, especially the O2/O12 gene (38%). All κ V-regions showed extensive somatic hypermutation with 5.4% of an average mutation rate. Replacement to silent mutation (R/S) ratio in the complementarity determining region (CDR) was > 2.9 in 12 out of 16 clones, indicating that the majority of the RA synovial B cells had undergone affinity maturation. However, the four other clones showed R/S ratios of < 2.9 in the CDR despite a high mutation rate. In contrast to the previous reports, long CDR3 was not a characteristic feature of these clones. In summary, these data show the high frequency utilization of the germline O2/O12 gene and a high rate of mutation with an evidence of antigen selection in most of the Ig κ genes expressed in the RA synovium.
AB - Sequence analysis of antibody variable (V) regions can provide an insight regarding whether B cells have gone through an antigen-driven process of affinity maturation. In this study, we analyzed 16 V-regions of immunoglobulin (Ig) κ light chain genes obtained from a cDNA library of a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial tissue. A salient feature of our results is the high frequency utilization of germline VκI family genes, especially the O2/O12 gene (38%). All κ V-regions showed extensive somatic hypermutation with 5.4% of an average mutation rate. Replacement to silent mutation (R/S) ratio in the complementarity determining region (CDR) was > 2.9 in 12 out of 16 clones, indicating that the majority of the RA synovial B cells had undergone affinity maturation. However, the four other clones showed R/S ratios of < 2.9 in the CDR despite a high mutation rate. In contrast to the previous reports, long CDR3 was not a characteristic feature of these clones. In summary, these data show the high frequency utilization of the germline O2/O12 gene and a high rate of mutation with an evidence of antigen selection in most of the Ig κ genes expressed in the RA synovium.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035041180&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1046/j.1365-3083.2001.053005503.x
DO - 10.1046/j.1365-3083.2001.053005503.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 11309159
AN - SCOPUS:0035041180
SN - 0300-9475
VL - 53
SP - 503
EP - 509
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Immunology
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Immunology
IS - 5
ER -