A common idiotype in IgE and its relation to recognition of the grass pollen allergen Phl p 2

The variable regions of allergen-specific IgE, the isotype mediating allergic responses, are poorly defined to date. In this study we define the character of human antibody binding sites recognizing Phl p 2, a major allergen from timothy grass pollen. Independently raised specificities developed by phage display technology tended to have common sequence motifs (idiotypes), such as IGHV4-31 germline gene origin and heavy chain complementarity-determining region (CDR) 3 length and sequence. They also combined with highly related light chain sequences. Such heavy chain variable domain-encoding transcripts have also been found in the IgE-encoding transcriptome of yet other grass pollen allergic subjects. Altogether these data argue that a common idiotype is used to establish specific antibodies with a potential to mediate allergic responses to Phl p 2. Such a restriction may contribute to the limited molecular diversity observed in some IgE populations.