V-REGION AND CLASS-SPECIFIC RT-PCR AMPLIFICATION OF HUMAN-IMMUNOGLOBULIN HEAVY AND LIGHT-CHAIN GENES FROM B-CELL LINES

We have designed and tested primers that amplify complete human kappa and lambda light chain genes, and human Fd fragments from gamma, mu an d alpha heavy chain genes. These primers were tested for efficiency an d specificity on monoclonal sources of human immunoglobulin RNA, obtai ned from human B-cell lines of known immunoglobulin gene expression, A nalysis of the sequences derived from these B-cells confirms the speci ficity of the PCR primers and the extent of somatic mutation seen in d ifferent B-cell malignancies supports existing concepts for differing aetiologies in the tumours concerned.