Levels of somatic hypermutations in B cell receptors increase during childhood

E.J. Schatorjé, G.J. Driessen, R.M.W.M. van Hout, M. van der Burg, E. de Vries

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)394-398
JournalClinical and Experimental Immunology
Volume178
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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