Defective selection of VHDHJH CDR3's in ICF patients. VHDHJH of the VH1 and VH5 families from P1, P2, and P4 (17, 23, and 35 sequences, respectively) were compared with 108 sequences from sorted naive CD19+IgD+CD27- B cells from 2 healthy children. (A-B) Histograms show JH gene usage (panel A) and DH gene usage (panel B) for total ICF and control sequences. (C) Histograms show CDR3 length distribution for sequences from sorted naive CD19+IgD+CD27- B cells, total ICF cells, and P1, P2, and P4 B cells. (D) VH5-51-DHJH sequences from control CD19+CD27-CD21- transitional (26 sequences) and mature CD19+CD27-CD21+ (25 sequences) B cells were analyzed. CDR3 length was determined by counting amino acid residues between codon 94 and the conserved Trp in JH segments at position 102. Pie charts represent the corresponding distribution of positively charged residueswithin CDR3's for each sample; m indicates mean.
