The NOD/SCID chimeric mouse model of human B cell development: studies on the VH4 family immunoglobulin repertoire and implications for SLE

Abstract

The use of the NOD=SCID mouse as a transplant recipient for human cord blood B cell progenitorsas a tool for investigations into the development of human B cells has become an exciting reality. The characteristics of the immunoglobulin repertoire in such a model is important to investigate, as it is possiblethat normal or skewed representationscould be produced.Here we reviewour current work in which we describe a normal VH4 repertoire produced in this chimeric mouse model and describe the differences in combinatorial diversity between the human cells that were isolated from the bone marrow and spleen. The implications of this model for studies of systemic lupus erythematosus are also discussed.