IgD receptors of lymphoid cells

While present in normal human serum in very low amounts and undetectable in sera of non-human primates as well as of mice, IgD is found on the surface of the majority of B lymphocytes in all the above mentioned species. Lymphocytes which carry IgD on their membrane also have IgM. The two molecules are present in relative amounts that can be very different in different cells. Both IgM and IgD of a single cell are the actual product of the cell itself. They have the same light chain and, more importantly, the same combining site and idiotype. IgD/IgM bearing lymphocytes are the majority of all B lymphocytes in spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, whereas in bone marrow they account for half of the immunoglobulin positive cells. Although the percentage of double IgD/IgM cells is very similar in different tissues, the total amount of IgD, as well as the relative amounts of IgD and IgM as detected by biochemical methods varies. In fact, lymph nodes, and even more Peyer's patches are much richer than spleen in cells having levels of IgD higher than those of IgM; conversely, in the bone marrow, all the positive cells have very low levels of IgD. In ontogeny, as in evolution, IgD appears after IgM: in human foetuses IgD bearing cells are not detectable before 13 weeks of gestation, and in the mouse they appear only after birth. IgD receptors seem to disappear from B cells which undergo maturation to secretion, as indicated by the fact that only a proportion of IgM secreting plasma cells show membrane IgD. IgD is never found on the membrane of IgG-containing cells, and also lymphocytes bearing simultaneously IgD and IgG are very rare, and it might well be that for these cells, the double expression for short periods of time does not actually correspond to simultaneous synthesis.