Contribution of Receptor Editing to the Antibody Repertoire

Receptor editing, clonal deletion, and anergy are the mechanisms by which B cells maintain tolerance to self antigens. To determine the extent to which receptor editing shapes the normal antibody repertoire, we generated an immunoglobulin κ polymorphism that facilitates the detection of editing of i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2001-02, Vol.291 (5508), p.1541-1544
Main Authors: Casellas, Rafael, Shih, Tien-An Yang, Kleinewietfeld, Markus, Rakonjac, Jasna, Nemazee, David, Rajewsky, Klaus, Nussenzweig, Michel C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Receptor editing, clonal deletion, and anergy are the mechanisms by which B cells maintain tolerance to self antigens. To determine the extent to which receptor editing shapes the normal antibody repertoire, we generated an immunoglobulin κ polymorphism that facilitates the detection of editing of immunoglobulin light chains in vivo. We found that B cells are targeted for editing during a 2-hour delay in development at the pre-BII cell stage, and that about 25% of all antibody molecules are produced by gene replacement. These results suggest that receptor editing represents a major force in shaping the antibody repertoire.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1056600