Kinetic, affinity, and diversity limits of human polyclonal antibody responses against tetanus toxoid

Due to technical limitations, little knowledge exists on the composition of Ag-specific polyclonal Ab responses. Hence, we here present a molecular analysis of two representative human Ab repertoires isolated by using a novel single-cell cloning approach. The observed genetic diversity among tetanus toxoid-specific plasma cells indicate that human polyclonal repertoires are limited to the order of 100 B cell clones and hypermutated variants thereof. Affinity and kinetic binding constants are log-normally distributed, and median values are close to the proposed affinity ceilings for positive selection. Abs varied a million-fold in affinity but were restricted in their off-rates with an upper limit of 2 x 10(-3) s(-1). Identification of Abs of high affinity without hypermutations in combination with a modest effect of hypermutations on observed affinity increases indicate that Abs selected from the naive repertoire are not only of low affinity but cover a relatively large span in affinity, reaching into the subnanomolar range.