title: Levels of somatic hypermutations in B cell receptors increase during childhood.
abstract: Somatic hypermutation (SHM) is an important step in antigen-driven B cell development creating B lymphocytes expressing high-affinity antibody receptors. It is known that the peripheral B lymphocyte compartments of healthy children and adults differ considerably. However, the development of SHM with age has not been studied in detail previously. Therefore, we used the immunoglobulin (Ig)κ-restriction enzyme hot-spot mutation assay (Igκ-REHMA) to gain an estimation of SHM levels in different age groups in order to relate this to the size of the memory B lymphocyte subpopulations. We show that the level of SHM increases rapidly during the first 2 years of life. This reflects the changes of the memory B cell subpopulations, but also changes in the SHM within memory B cell subsets, probably reflecting an increase of secondary memory B cell responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Jeroen Bosch Hospital, 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: E J H
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Schatorjé
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Driessen
authors.forename: R W N M
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: van Hout
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Burg
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Vries
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016175:B-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017074:Common Variable Immunodeficiency / Q000235:genetics; D015322:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D027041:Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin
chemical_list: D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell
keywords: memory B cell; peripheral B cell development; somatic hypermutation