Antibody-encoding repertoires of bone marrow and peripheral blood—a focus on IgE

Allergic responses are initiated by the interaction between antigen and IgEs carried on effector cells such as mast cells and basophils. However, the detailed molecular nature of IgE is not amendable to analysis using many of the most commonly used methodologies because B cells/plasma cells that produce them are scarce. Lately, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has allowed us to analyze immunoglobulin-encoding genes at a rate unimaginable in the past.1 Although such investigations tend to focus on antibody repertoires other than IgE, the technology has already enhanced our understanding of IgE responses in allergic disease (see Table E1 in this article's Online Repository at www.jacionline.org).