Fig. 6

N-region addition in Vλ-Jλ joins (black bars) and Vκ-Jκ joins (white bars) from RA synovia, RA PBL, and normal PBL. Vκ clones are from ref. 16 and derive primarily from members of the VκIII family. Percentages of Vκ clones containing N-region addition vary slightly from ref. 16 because of reanalysis to identify P nucleotides. 7–11 codons) [(16), Table 3, Fig. 7A]. As was the case for kappa light chains (16), Vλ transcripts from RA synovium and PBL had a higher mean CDR3 length and contained a higher proportion of long CDR3 intervals than did those from normal PBL (p = 0.02, Student t-test, two-tailed). CDR3 intervals of 11 or more codons were found in ≥50% of transcripts from each of the four RA samples. In contrast, CDR3 lengths of ≥11 codons were found in less than half of transcripts from each of the normal PBL samples (Fig. 7A).