These previous studies in BALB/c mice suggested that the initial constraints regulating CDR-H3 content reflected germline sequence content; i.e. the product of natural selection. Superimposed upon these germline restrictions in diversity

were a series of somatic, presumably Z-VAD-FMK solubility dmso clonal, selective events that sequentially produced a CDR-H3 repertoire that had undergone “trimming” of apparently “disfavored” sequence content. This process included a reduction in the use of a specific VH gene segment, VH81X; a reduction in the use of very short CDR-H3s; enhanced use of reading frame 1; enhanced use of tyrosine and glycine in the CDR-H3 loop; and a sequential elimination of highly charged or heavily hydrophobic CDR-H3s with development. The present analysis of immunoglobulin repertoire development in the bone marrow of C57BL/6 mice again demonstrates the effects of germline-imposed restrictions on the range of initial diversity in the H-chain repertoire; but would point to significant differences in either the efficiency, the ability, or the direction of the late-stage somatic, clonal selective events in the bone marrow and the periphery. The end result is a mature, recirculating B-cell repertoire characterized by including IgM BCRs that bear antigen-binding sites that seemed to be not just “disfavored”,

but commonly “discarded” by the mature, recirculating Maraviroc mouse B cells in BALB/c mice. At the progenitor B-cell stage, the influence of the germline on the C57BL/6 repertoire is obvious. VH, DH, and JH usage in C57BL/6 H-chain transcripts appears to differ from BALB/c H-chain transcripts both due to changes in number as well as the sequence of homologous gene segments. Germline variation appeared to be associated with changes in VDJ rearrangement frequency, although this latter point needs to be confirmed through the analysis of nonfunctional sequences. Among the features

of the C57BL/6 repertoire that most closely matched the BALB/c repertoire were similarities in the initial distribution Clomifene of N addition, lengths, charge, and the usage of 18 of the 20 different potential amino acids. One of the features that varied between the two strains reflected the diminished number of functional VH gene segments, including the absence of the most commonly used VH in the BALB/c genome, VH7183.10. Others included the enhanced use of serine-enriched DFL16.1; the presence of a DSP2.11 homologue, DSP2.x, that encodes serine in RF1; and an increased use of JH1 in place of JH4. Of these changes, the most apparent effect in early B-cell progenitors was on VH content, again due to the absence of many of the VH7183 variant sequences available to BALB/c mice.