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Science 15 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5597, p. 1295
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5597.1295p
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This Week in Science
The secretory class of immunoglobulin A (IgA) dominates in B cell immune responses at the intestinal mucosa. Switching of B cells to IgA is regulated by the enzyme activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), which also controls somatic hypermutation (SHM) of Ig genes. As a result, both AID-deficient mice and those lacking IgA, display a predominance of mucosal IgM antibodies. However, as Fagarasan et al. (p. 1424) report, AID-mutant mice suffer a severe outgrowth of bacterial flora in the gut, which is not seen with IgA-deficiency, accompanied by a hyper-proliferation of intestinal B cells, leading to hyperplasia of isolated lymphoid follicles. Somatic hypermutation, coupled with switching to the appropriate antibody class, thus appears to be essential in managing intestinal bacteria and regulating B cell immunity.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
