More than one antibody of individual B cells revealed by single-cell immune profiling

摘要

Antibodies have a common structure consisting of two identical heavy (H) and two identical light (L) chains. It is widely accepted that a single mature B cell produces a single antibody through restricted synthesis of only one VsubH/subDJsubH/sub (encoding the H-chain variable region) and one VsubL/subJsubL/sub (encoding the L-chain variable region) via recombination. Naive B cells undergo class-switch recombination (CSR) from initially producing membrane-bound IgM and IgD to expressing more effective membrane-bound IgG, IgA, or IgE when encountering antigens. To ensure the "one cell - one antibody" paradigm, only the constant region of the H chain is replaced during CSR, while the rearranged VsubH/subDJsubH/sub pattern and the L chain are kept unchanged. To define those long-standing classical concepts at the single-cell transcriptome level, we applied the Chromium Single-Cell Immune Profiling Solution and Sanger sequencing to evaluate the Ig transcriptome repertoires of single B cells. Consistent with the "one cell - one antibody" rule, most of the B cells showed one V(D)J recombination pattern. Intriguingly, however, two or more VsubH/subDJsubH/sub or VsubL/subJsubL/sub recombination patterns of IgH chain or IgL chain were also observed in hundreds to thousands of single B cells. Moreover, each Ig class showed unique VsubH/subDJsubH/sub recombination pattern in a single B-cell expressing multiple Ig classes. Together, our findings reveal an unprecedented presence of multi-Ig specificity in some single B cells, implying regulation of Ig gene rearrangement and class switching that differs from the classical mechanisms of both the "one cell - one antibody" rule and CSR.? The Author(s) 2019.