title: Light chain types of IgD in human bone marrow and serum.
abstract: One of the unexplained features of human IgD is its preferential expression with either kappa or lambda light chains in different situations. While the membrane IgD on B lymphocytes shows a predominance of the kappa type, about 90% of all known IgD myeloma proteins and 87% of normal IgD producing plasma cells in spleens of healthy individuals were shown to belong to the lambda type. Very little is known of the kappa/lambda light chain distribution of normal polyclonal IgD in the serum and in the bone marrow plasma cells. In this study, the kappa/lambda representation of IgD in bone marrow plasma cells and in the serum of 25 adult persons (two healthy and 23 suffering from various nonmalignant diseases) was investigated. The kappa/lambda ratio of IgD+ bone marrow plasma cells showed a large variation among the individuals of this group, in 84% of the cases being below 1.0. While about 1/3 of the investigated subjects had 80% or more of IgD of the lambda type (kappa/lambda ratio below 0.2), most showed a kappa/lambda ratio of IgD higher than that, with four persons exhibiting a clear cut predominance of IgD of the kappa type. A positive correlation (Spearman's correlation co-efficient, P = 0.005) between the percentages of IgD+ plasma cells and their kappa/lambda ratio was found. Semiquantitative evaluation of the kappa/lambda composition within the serum IgD by immunoselection was in agreement with the kappa/lambda ratio of IgD+ plasma cells in all individual cases.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007072:Immunoglobulin D / Q000276:immunology*; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000276:immunology*; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains; D007146:Immunoglobulin lambda-Chains; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010950:Plasma Cells / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007072:Immunoglobulin D; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains; D007146:Immunoglobulin lambda-Chains