Mitogen-reactive B cell subpopulations selectively express different sets of V regions.

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Abstract
Experiments were designed to investigate whether the idiotypic repertoire is equally distributed among mouse B cell subpopulations as defined by mitogen reactivity. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and Nocardia delipidated cell mitogens (NDCM), 2 mitogens which act on different B cell subsets were used. The repertoire can be defined in quantitative terms as the frequency of B cells that are precursors for clones secreting Ig with a given specificity or with a given specificity or with a determinate idiotype. The absolute frequency of LPS- and NDCM-sensitive B lymphocytes secreting Ig molecules that bear 3 idiotypes originally found on a monoclonal anti-.beta.-galactosidase antibody was determined. Because the frequencies of B cells carrying one of these idiotypes are dramatically different in the LPS- and NDCM-sensitive B cells subsets, the idiotypic repertoire is apparently not randomly distributed among mitogen-reactive B cell subpopulations.