Eur J Immunol. 2003 Dec;33(12):3433-8
Colombo M, Dono M, Gazzola P, Chiorazzi N, Mancardi G, Ferrarini M.
U.O. Oncologia Medica C, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro,
Genova, Italy.
A longitudinal study of Ig V gene segments utilized by B cells from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of two patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) was carried out using RT-PCR methodologies.
One patient with a relapsing-remitting (RR)-MS was investigated at onset and at relapse, 1 year later.
A patient with secondary-progressive (SP)-MS was tested 9 and 13 years after disease onset.
Sequenceanalyses of V(H)DJ(H) segments bearing V(H)3 and V(H)4 that were obtained from Cgamma cDNA genes demonstrated a substantial proportion of shared clones in the samples taken at different times; these clones were identical or closely related, i.e. had the same third complementary determining region (CDR) of the H chain variable region gene (HCDR3) with different mutations in the V(H) segment.
Collectively, these data demonstrate that in MS patients there is a strong selective pressure, which could be exerted by antigen (or autoantigen) stimulation, for the maintenance and partial diversification of certain V(H)DJ(H) Cgamma sequences.