Analysis of Ig VH region genes encoding IgE antibodies in splenic B lymphocytes of a patient with asthma

An atopic patient with hypersensitivity against house dust mite died as a result of an asthmatic attack. A portion of the spleen was obtained and was used to analyze the spectrum of Ig heavy chain V regions involved in encoding IgE Abs. A nested PCR technique generated 14 cloned VH sequences that had distinct CDR3 regions; 5 of 14 were derived from the minor VH5 family, and the remainder derived from the larger families, VH3 (6 of 14) and VH4 (3 of 14). One of the VH3-derived sequences was present as a repeated sequence in three clones. A control PCR with the same VH primers in combination with JH primers yielded only 1 of 13 sequences from VH5, indicating preferential VH5 usage only for IgE. Analysis of VH5-C epsilon sequences revealed usage of a single gene, DP73, with extensive mutations and several "hot spots" containing common replacement amino acids. However, there was no concentration of replacement mutations in the CDRs, which conventionally would indicate a role for Ag selection. The VH3 and VH4 genes in combination with C epsilon also harbored extensive somatic mutations. From these findings in splenic B lymphocytes, and those of a previous study of blood lymphocytes, it seems that preferential usage of VH5 genes and extensive somatic hypermutation are characteristic of B cells synthesizing IgE in patients with allergic disease.