The Biological Significance of Silent Idiotype Clones
Daniélé Primi, Dominique Juy, Pierre‐André Cazenave · 2019
The existence of silent idiotype clones has been suggested by a number of observations. Hybridoma technology, for instance, has revealed a vast heterogeneity in the response to arsonate which was believed to be restricted to a limited number of clones. Of particular interest is the cyclical variation of the expression of the M460 idiotype constantly observed in our cultures. In all strains tested, the curve of idiotype expression reached a plateau and subsequently rapidly declined. In some cases this decline was also followed by idiotype reexpression. If different individuals of the same species start with the same potential idiotypic repertoire then the driving of different functional states in different animals has been postulated to be accounted for by both the influence of external antigens and to the occurrence of different maternal immunoglobulins with various antibody functions.