title: Comparison of V kappa gene family expression in adult and fetal B cells.
abstract: The functional B cell repertoires from adult and fetal mice were compared by examining V kappa gene family expression in individual cells. In addition, because little is known about the relative use of the various V kappa gene families in an immune response, adult B cells from several different strains of mice were analyzed. This was accomplished by stimulating B cells with the polyclonal activator, LPS. Activated cells were then analyzed for V kappa gene family expression at the single cell level by in situ hybridization using radiolabeled V kappa gene probes. It was found that all V kappa gene families tested were represented in the LPS-induced adult repertoire with V kappa 1, V kappa 4,5 and V kappa 19 being expressed to the largest degree in all strains tested. The LPS-induced adult V kappa gene family repertoire was then compared to the fetal repertoire and some differences were observed. In particular, a lower proportion of fetal B cells expressed V kappa 1 and a higher proportion of fetal B cells expressed V kappa 4,5 and V kappa 10. Importantly, compared with the adult response there was no evidence in the fetal response for an increased expression of V kappa 21, the family that maps closest to J kappa,C kappa. This is in contrast to what has been shown previously with H chain V region exons in which there was a clear preference for the VH gene families that mapped closest to DH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio 78284-7758.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Teale
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Morris
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005333:Fetus; D015870:Gene Expression; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics*; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D008099:Liver / Q000196:embryology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D008805:Mice, Inbred A; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D005810:Multigene Family; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D013045:Species Specificity; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes