A new isoform of human membrane-bound IgE

The epsilon-chain of membrane-bound IgE on the surface of B lymphocytes is known to contain a membrane-anchoring peptide segment that is encoded by two membrane exons, me.1 and me.2. In analyzing pertinent segments in mRNA from human IgE-expressing B cells by using PCR methods and Northern blotting analyses, we have identified three species of mRNA of epsilon-chain with variations in the splicing of the membrane exons. The conventional species (m/s) contains the predicted me.1 and me.2; species m/1 harbors 156 extra nucleotides 5' of me.1 with unaltered reading frame; species s/t lacks me.1 and hence the segment encoding the hydrophobic transmembrane stretch and contains a shifted me.2 reading frame. Rabbit antibodies, which were prepared by immunization using a peptide of 36 amino acid residues representing an encoded segment unique to mRNA species m/l, could specifically bind to human IgE-expressing B cell lines and react with an epsilon-chain on Western immunoblots. These results indicate that there exists a previously unidentified isoform of human membrane-bound IgE.