BIASED UTILIZATION OF IMMUNOGLOBULIN VARIABLE REGION HEAVY-CHAIN AND LIGHT-CHAIN GENES BY THE MALIGNANT CD5- B-LYMPHOCYTES FROM PATIENTS WITH BURKITTS-LYMPHOMA

Twenty-six established Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines from endemic or sporadic groups of patients were examined for the expression of cr oss-reactive idiotypes (CRI) associated with VHI, VHIII, VHIV, VHVI, V (K)IIIa and V(K)IIIb heavy- and ligh-chain gene products, using a pane l of anti-CRI and anti-subgroup monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Membrane , cytoplasmic and secreted immunoglobulins (Ig) were analysed by immun ofluorescence, immunoperoxidase and ELISA respectively. While 35% of t he lines expressed either of the VHIV-associated CRI, recognised by th e MAbs 9G4 or LCI, none expressed the other V-H-associated CRI include d in our study. Of the kappa light chain expressing BL lines 54% and 4 6% belonged to the VKIII subgroup and V(K)IIIb sub-subgroups respectiv ely. None, however, was found to express the V(K)IIIA or V(K)IIIb-asso ciated CRI, recognised by the 6B6.6 and 17-109 MAbs. A significant ass ociation has been observed between the expression of the VHIV-associat ed CRI and the VKIII subgroup within the BL lines derived from the spo radic group of patients as compared with their endemic counterparts. O ur results suggest that the expressed repertoire of Ig variable region genes within the malignant B lymphocytes of BL is not random and that a highly selective mechanism(s) may operate on this subset of B lymph ocytes, as evidence by the expression of the V-H and V-K gene products . (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.