The kappa immunoglobulin light chain repertoire of peripheral blood B cells in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

The current study indicates disturbances in the peripheral B cell pool in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The peripheral blood B cell pool of JRA patients did show molecular changes in the kappa light chain repertoire which, in part, could be a sequel of secondary V(D)J-recombination and of a molecular bias during immunoglobulin rearrangement in the bone marrow. Thus, B cell tolerance might be broken by more than one pathogenic mechanism.