Influence of clonal selection on the expression of immunoglobulin variable region genes.
The humoral immune response of the mouse to certain antigens is characterized by the dominant expression of a single or limited number of related, immunoglobulin variable region (V) structures by antibody-secreting lymphocytes. Such dominance could be due to preferred expression of these V regions in the B cell population prior to the immune response or could result from the action of selective or regulatory mechanisms during the immune response. Expression of a heavy chain variable region (VH) gene segment that partially encodes a V region structure that dominates the immune response to para-azophenylarsonate (Ars) in strain A mice was examined in the B cell population of Ars nonimmune mice. This VH gene segment participates in encoding several hundred thousand different V region structures expressed in this B cell population. The immune system is therefore capable of recurrently selecting a single V region structure from such a repertoire for dominant expression by antibody-secreting lymphocytes during an immune response.
D000818:Animals; D000916:Antibody Diversity; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001391:Azo Compounds / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D001483:Base Sequence; D005796:Genes; D006825:Hybridomas; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D011863:Radioimmunoassay
D001391:Azo Compounds; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; C006665:4-azobenzoate