High-affinity antibodies produced by memory B cells differ from antibodies
produced in naive B cells in two respects. First, many of these antibodies
show somatic hypermutation, and second, the repertoire of antibodies expres
sed in memory responses is highly selected. To determine whether somatic hy
permutation is responsible for the shift in the antibody repertoire during
affinity maturation, we analyzed the immunoglobulin lambda light chain (Ig
lambda) repertoire expressed by naive and antigen-selected memory B cells i
n humans. We found that the Ig lambda repertoire differs between naive and
memory B cells and that this shift in the repertoire does not occur in the
absence of somatic hypermutation in patients lacking activation-induced cyt
idine deaminase (AID). Our work suggests that somatic hypermutation makes a
significant contribution to shaping the antigen-selected antibody repertoi
re in humans.