Figure 2.

Age-related changes in somatic hypermutation and predicted antibody structure. (A) Mean number of V gene mutations by individual and B cell subset with fitted logarithmic curves. Somatic hypermutation increased mainly in the first 10 years of life with some differences between cell subsets. (B) The proportion of memory IgD/IgM out of all IgD/IgM transcripts and the proportion of mutated IgG and IgA transcripts within repertoires showed significant increases in the first 10 years of life. Statistical differences between groups were tested using the Kruskal–Wallis test. (C) The proportion of sequences structurally different from germline increased in early childhood in all B cell subsets.