Diversity of immunoglobulin χ light chain gene rearrangements and evidence for somatic mutation in VχIV family gene segments in X‐linked agammaglobulinemia

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Abstract
X‐linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is a humoral immunodeficiency disease in man, characterized by an arrest in B lymphocyte differentiation at the precursor B cell stage. The structure of expressed immunoglobulin (Ig) χ light (L) chain rearrangements of nine B lymphoblastoid cell lines from one XLA patient was investigated by amplification of cDNA by the polymerase chain reaction using 5′ Vχ family‐specific primers and a 3′ χ constant region primer. Members of all four Vχ gene families were found to be utilized in Ig χ L chain rearrangements at frequencies that were consistent with random Vχ family usage. There was no preference for usage of any particular χ joining segment. Additional diversity was generated by deletions and random nucleotide insertions at the site of juxtaposition. Particular Vχ members seemed to be overrepresented in the sample. The observed homology of the VχI, VχII and VχIII region sequences, both to each other and to known germ‐line Vχ sequence indicated the absence of somatic mutations in the majority of these expressed Ig genes. In contrast of the single‐member VχIV family four different sequences were found to be expressed. That these sequences were mutated derivatives of a germ‐line VχIV element was substantiated both by sequence analysis and oligonucleotide hybridization. This finding shows that the mutation process can occur in early stages of B cell development i.e. before H chain class switch has occurred. The presence of these mutations is probably independent of clonal expansion since XLA patients are unable to respond to antigen. We conclude that the differentiation arrest in XLA does not preclude early onset of somatic mutation events in Vχ gene segments.