Stark S E, Caton A J
Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
J Exp Med. 1991 Sep 1;174(3):613-24. doi: 10.1084/jem.174.3.613.
We have analyzed how the immune system generates antibodies that are specific for analogues of an epitope on the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) that differ solely by the presence of Asp or Gly at amino acid 225. Most antibodies induced in response to HA(Asp225) use one of a few closely related variable (V) region structures that are encoded by characteristic VH/Vk gene segment combinations. Remarkably, none of these VH/Vk combinations was induced in response to HA(Gly225). Instead of modifying the HA(Asp225)-specific V regions by junctional variation or somatic mutation to recognize the altered epitope, new VH/Vk combinations were used. The expression of unique VH/Vk combinations appears to confer exquisite specificity to the selection of HA-specific B cells from the pre-immune repertoire.
我们分析了免疫系统如何产生针对流感病毒血凝素(HA)上一个表位类似物的特异性抗体,这些类似物仅在氨基酸225处存在天冬氨酸(Asp)或甘氨酸(Gly)而有所不同。大多数针对HA(Asp225)诱导产生的抗体使用由特征性VH/Vk基因片段组合编码的少数几种密切相关的可变(V)区结构之一。值得注意的是,这些VH/Vk组合中没有一种是针对HA(Gly225)诱导产生的。不是通过连接多样性或体细胞突变来修饰HA(Asp225)特异性V区以识别改变的表位,而是使用了新的VH/Vk组合。独特的VH/Vk组合的表达似乎赋予了从免疫前库中选择HA特异性B细胞的高度特异性。