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  • Complexity of the human mem...
    Budeus, Bettina; de Reynoso, Stefanie Schweigle; Przekopowitz, Martina; Hoffmann, Daniel; Seifert, Marc; Küppers, Ralf

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 09/2015, Volume: 112, Issue: 38
    Journal Article

    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 consisted of class switched and IgM⁺(IgD⁺) members, a feature that correlated significantly with clone size. Hence, we provide strong evidence that the vast majority of Ig mutated B cells—including IgM⁺IgD⁺CD27⁺ B cells—are post-germinal center (GC) memory B cells. Clone members showed high intraclonal sequence diversity and high intraclonal versatility in Ig class and IgG subclass composition, with particular patterns of memory B-cell clone generation in GC reactions. In conclusion, GC produce amazingly large, complex, and diverse memory B-cell clones, equipping the human immune system with a versatile and highly diverse compartment of IgM⁺(IgD⁺) and class-switched memory B cells.