Understanding why the immune system is depressed during spaceflight is of obvious importance for future human deep-space missions, such as the foreseen missions to Mars. However, little is known about the effects of these flights on humoral immunity. We previously immunized adult Pleurodeles waltl (urodele amphibian) onboard the Mir space station and showed that heavy-chain variable (VH) domains of specific IgM antibodies are encoded by genes belonging to the VHII and VHVI families. We have now determined how these animals use their individual VHII and VHVI genes by screening IgM heavy-chain cDNA libraries and by quantifying IgM heavy-chain transcripts encoded by these genes. Results were compared with those obtained using control animals immunized on Earth under the same conditions as onboard Mir. Our experiments revealed an increase in the expression of IgM heavy-chain mRNAs encoded by the VHII and VHVI.C genes and a strong decrease in the expression of IgM heavy-chain mRNAs encoded by the VHVI.A and VHVI.B genes in spaceflight animals. Consequently, different heavy-chain mRNAs are expressed by spaceflight animals, demonstrating that this environment affects the humoral response. These observations may be due to a change in B-cell selection under spaceflight conditions.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.08-121327DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

igm heavy-chain
16
heavy-chain mrnas
12
pleurodeles waltl
8
onboard mir
8
encoded genes
8
vhii vhvi
8
expression igm
8
mrnas encoded
8
spaceflight animals
8
heavy-chain
6

Similar Publications

An allelic atlas of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable regions reveals antibody binding epitope preference resilient to SARS-CoV-2 mutation escape.

Front Immunol

January 2025

State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangdong Laboratory of Computational Biomedicine, Center for Cell Lineage Research, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.

Background: Although immunoglobulin (Ig) alleles play a pivotal role in the antibody response to pathogens, research to understand their role in the humoral immune response is still limited.

Methods: We retrieved the germline sequences for the IGHV from the IMGT database to illustrate the amino acid polymorphism present within germline sequences of IGHV genes. We aassembled the sequences of IgM and IgD repertoire from 130 people to investigate the genetic variations in the population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Concomitant Waldenström Macroglobulinemia/Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma and Non-Immunoglobulin M Plasma Cell Neoplasm.

Arch Pathol Lab Med

January 2025

the Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Petersen, Stuart, He, Ju, Ghezavati, Siddiqi, Wang).

Context.—: The co-occurrence of plasma cell neoplasm (PCN) and lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL) is rare, and their clonal relationship remains unclear.

Objective.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Monoclonal antibodies recognizing nonprotein antigens remain largely underrepresented in our understanding of the molecular repertoire of innate and adaptive immunity. One such antibody is Mannitou, a murine IgM that recognizes paucimannosidic glycans. In this work, we report the production and purification of the recombinant antigen-binding fragment (Fab) of Mannitou IgM (Mannitou Fab) and employ a combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches to obtain its initial structural characterization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma (PCMZL) by analyzing recurrent cases to determine whether it's a reactive process or a true lymphoma, utilizing data from the French Study Group of Cutaneous Lymphoma (GFELC).
  • - Methods included assessing histology, B-cell clonality, and immunophenotype of lesions, revealing that most initial cases were localized, with differences in recurrence times based on location, and certain clonal patterns were more prominent in local recurrences.
  • - The findings suggest that assessing immunoglobulin phenotype, particularly IgM and IgD, may be critical for diagnosing PCMZL, as IgM-positive cases tend to lead to more aggressive transformation and poorer prognosis, indicating different biological
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: The B cell antigen receptor (BCR) complex, comprised of antigen recognition and signaling components, functions in initiating B cell activation. While structural studies have described BCR domain organization, gaps remain in our understanding of its antigen binding domain (Fab, fragment antigen-binding) disposition, and how antigen binding is sensed to initiate signaling. Here, we report antigen affinity and signaling of the immunoglobulin (Ig) class IgM and IgG BCRs and define conformational states of full-length BCRs of two human broadly neutralizing antibodies, the glycan-specific, heavy chain domain-swapped, I-shaped 2G12, and a canonical Y-shaped antibody, CH31, that recognizes the CD4-binding site on the HIV-1 Envelope protein (Env).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!