Cloning, sequencing and analyzing of the heavy chain V region genes of human polyreactive antibodies

The heavy chain variable region genes of 5 human polyreactive mAbs generated in our laboratory have been cloned and sequenced using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. We found that 2 and 3 mAbs utilized genes of the VHIV and VHIII families, respectively. The former 2 VH segments were in germline configuration. A common VH segment, with the best similarity of 90.1 % to the published VHIII germline genes, was utilized by 2 different rearranged genes encoding the V regions of other 3 mAbs. This strongly suggests that the common VH segment is a unmutated copy of an unidentified germline VHIII gene. All these polyreactive mAbs displayed a large NDN region (VH-D-JH junction). The entire H chain V regions of these polyreactive mAbs are unusually basic. The analysis of the charge properties of these mAbs as well as those of other poly- and mono- reactive mAbs from literatures prompts us to propose that the charged amino acids with a particular distribution along the H chain V region,especially the binding sites (CDRs), may be an important structural feature involved in antibody polyreactivity.