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Faculty Publications

Mark Shlomchik, MD, PhD

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Somatic hypermutation of autoreactive RF B cells proliferating at the T zone red pulp border. Small numbers (10-20) of RF B cells (dark red) were microdissected in two separate clusters (11f3 and 11f4) and the Vk genes amplified by PCR, cloned and sequenced. The recovered sequences could be assembled into a genealogic tree depicting the relationship of mutations that were shared or unique among the sequences. The pattern shows that although all the sequences shared a number of mutations (in the “trunk” of the tree), there was a hierarchical pattern of partially shared and unique mutations indicative of ongoing somatic hypermutation among the RF B cells in each cluster.