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B cells pay a price

Oncogene volume 22, pages 5379–5380 (2003)Cite this article

B cells play a finely balanced game as they mutate their antibody genes to generate antibody diversity. In this issue of Oncogene, Nilsen et al. show that if this process is upset by removing Ung uracil-DNA glycosylase, spontaneous B-cell lymphomas arise.

Antibodies are inarguably the most versatile proteins we produce. Humans possess a vast number of unique antibodies with different amino-acid sequences in the variable half of the protein molecule which binds to foreign pathogens. All of these variable regions are attached to several constant portions which deliver the knockout punch by neutralizing the invaders. This diversity is accomplished by relatively few inherited genes that encode the variable and constant regions, which are then modified through a process of somatic hypermutation and heavy chain class recombination. This makes B lymphocytes, where antibodies are produced, the master cells of variation.

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  1. Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, 21224, MD, USA

    Patricia J Gearhart

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  1. Patricia J Gearhart
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Correspondence to Patricia J Gearhart.

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Gearhart, P. B cells pay a price. Oncogene 22, 5379–5380 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1206874

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