title: The role of somatic hypermutation in the generation of antibody diversity.
abstract: The immune system is capable of establishing an enormous repertoire of antibodies before its first contact with antigen. Most antibodies that express germ-line sequences are of relatively low affinity. Once antigen enters the system, it stimulates a somatic mutational mechanism that generates antibodies of higher affinity and selects for the expression of those antibodies to produce a more effective immune response. The details of the mechanism and regulation of somatic hypermutation remain to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: French
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laskov
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Scharff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000916:Antibody Diversity; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation