In rheumatic diseases, autoantibody-producing cells of interest are often hidden in a polyclonal B-lymphocyte population. Immunoglobulin gene fingerprinting is a useful approach to screen for expanding clones and to detect recirculation between different locations. The gene fingerprinting approach and the Southern blot technique have been amalgamated, using electrophoretic transfer of a PCR pro...

Immunoglobulin gene diversification by somatic hypermutation (SHM), class switch recombination (CSR), and gene conversion is dependent upon activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). AID is a single-stranded DNA specific cytidine deaminase that is expressed primarily in activated mature B lymphocytes. AID appears to catalyze DNA cytidine deamination of immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light cha...

erogeneous group of benign reactive T or B cell lymphoproliferative disease of the skin. Cutaneous B cell pseudolymphoma (CBPL) shares many histopathologic and clinical features with cutaneous B cell lymphoma. Therefore, it is often impossible for the dermatologists to make a conclusive diagnosis of CBPL. Recently, Immunoglobulin gene rearrangement using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or south...