Complexity of the human memory B-cell compartment is determined by the versatility of clonal diversification in germinal centers.

ABSTRACT: Our knowledge about the clonal composition and intraclonal diversity of the human memory B-cell compartment and the relationship between memory B-cell subsets is still limited, although these are central issues for our understanding of adaptive immunity. We performed a deep sequencing analysis of rearranged immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain genes from biological replicates, covering more than 100,000 memory B lymphocytes from two healthy adults. We reveal a highly similar B-cell receptor repertoire among the four main human IgM(+) and IgG(+) memory B-cell subsets. Strikingly, in both donors, 45% of sequences could be assigned to expanded clones, demonstrating that the human memory B-cell compartment is characterized by many, often very large, B-cell clones. Twenty percent of the clones consi

SUBMITTER: Budeus B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4586852 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature