Reconstitution of self-reactive antibody repertoires of autologous plasma IgM in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma following myeloablative therapy

In healthy individuals, natural self-reactive antibody repertoires are restricted to a limited subset of autoantigens that is selected early in development and that remains invariant between individuals through aging. In the present study, we addressed the question of whether self-reactive antibody repertoires of plasma IgM change during high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) with autologous blood stem cell support and whether antibody repertoires generated during immune reconstitution are similar to those present under physiological conditions. We followed the development of antibody repertoires in patients undergoing HDCT for the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Antibody repertoires were investigated by quantitative immunoblotting on whole tissue extracts as sources of self-antigens and by multiparametric statistical analysis of the data. We demonstrate that self-reactive antibody repertoires of plasma IgM of NHL patients prior to HDCT differ from those of healthy individuals, that they change during recovery of immune functions, and that antibody repertoires similar to those of healthy individuals are generated during immune reconstitution. We conclude that the mechanisms responsible for the selection of self-reactive repertoires of autologous plasma IgM during immune reconstitution after HDCT may follow those present under physiological conditions and that immune reconstitution may include a shift from altered toward normal patterns of self-reactivity.