Characterization of the expressed immunoglobulin IGHV repertoire in the New World marmoset Callithrix jacchus

The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus jacchus) is a member of the Callith richinae, a family of outbred New World primates with limited MHC polymorph isms and a propensity to develop spontaneous or experimentally induced auto immunity. C. jacchus marmosets are susceptible to experimental allergic enc ephalomyelitis (EAE), and spontaneously develop autoimmune colitis and thyr oiditis. Such disease models approximate the complexity of human autoimmune disorders, and allow an investigation of the respective roles of T-cell an d antibody responses to self-antigens in outbred species. A key issue for f urther definition of the pathogenic antibody responses in human autoimmunit y is to understand the diversity of the immunoglobulin repertoire in primat e models. Here, we characterized the expressed immunoglobulin IGHV repertoi re of the C. jacchus marmoset. Six IGHV subgroups were identified which sho w a high degree of sequence similarity to their human IGHV counterparts (IG HV1, IGHV3, IGHV4, IGHV5, IGHV6, and IGHV7). As in the expressed human IGHV repertoire, the framework regions are more conserved when compared to the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs), with the greatest degree of var iability located in CDR3. Predicted structural features are highly conserve d between C jacchus and human IGHV. This information now provides a framewo rk for studies of the antigen-specific repertoire of pathogenic antibodies in EAE and other immune-mediated diseases.