Abstract
Immunoglobulins G (IgG) and their Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs) play important roles in our immune system. The conserved N-glycan in the Fc region of IgG1 impacts interaction of IgG with FcγRs and the resulting effector functions, which has led to the design of antibody therapeutics with greatly improved antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) activities. Studies have suggested that also N-glycosylation of the FcγRIII affects receptor interactions with IgG, but detailed studies of the interaction of IgG1 and FcγRIIIa with distinct N-glycans have been hindered by the natural heterogeneity in N-glycosylation. In this study, we employed comprehensive genetic engineering of the N-glycosylation capacities in mammalian cell lines to express IgG1 and FcγRIIIa with different N-glycan structures to more generally explore the role of N-glycosylation in IgG1:FcγRIIIa binding interactions. We included FcγRIIIa variants of both the 158F and 158V allotypes and investigated the key N-glycan features that affected binding affinity. Our study confirms that afucosylated IgG1 has the highest binding affinity to oligomannose FcγRIIIa, a glycan structure commonly found on Asn162 on FcγRIIIa expressed by NK cells but not monocytes or recombinantly expressed FcγRIIIa.
Introduction
Immunoglobulin G (IgG) consists of both an antigen-binding variable Fab region and an Fc region which allows antibodies to activate the complement system through C1q binding or activate effector cells through Fc gamma Receptor (FcγR) or CD16a binding. This interaction is influenced by both the IgG subclass and the IgG-Fc N-glycan composition at the conserved Asn297 site. The IgG1-Fc Asn297 N-glycan site is partially masked from the N-glycan glycosyltransferases and together with the glycosyltransferase substrate specificity and glycan-peptide backbone interactions, this results in a complex-type, biantennary, core-fucosylated N-glycan with partially incomplete galactosylation and α2-6 sialylation (–). The IgG1-Fc core fucose interferes with binding to FcγRIII and IgG1 lacking this core fucose, hereafter called afucosylated IgG1, has an increased affinity up to 40 times to FcγRIII (–). Interestingly, afucosylated IgG1 is generally low abundant in circulating IgG, but high levels of antigen-specific afucosylated IgG1 have been observed in several conditions against membrane-embedded epitopes, such as alloimmune responses to blood cells, malaria and enveloped viruses including; HIV, Dengue, and SARS-CoV-2 (–). In addition to core fucosylation, IgG-Fc galactosylation further enhances the affinity to FcγRIII (, , ).
The FcγRIIIa receptor is an activating IgG receptor of medium-high affinity (KD≈10-400 nM), mainly expressed on NK cells, macrophages, and monocytes (–). It has been shown that the binding strength of IgG1 and IgG3 to FcγRIIIa directly correlates with antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and therapeutic outcome (–). There are two common allotypes: FcγRIIIa-158V and -158F. FcγRIIIa-158V has a 5-fold increased affinity to IgG1 in comparison to the 158F allotype (), the latter being the dominant allele in humans (–). This glycoprotein has five N-glycan sites (Asn38, Asn45, Asn74, Asn162, and Asn169) of which mainly Asn162 influences IgG1 binding (, ). Site-specific N-glycan analysis of FcγRIIIa from different sources shows extensive compositional heterogeneity ranging from oligomannose structures to complex sialylated tetra-antennary glycans with LacNAc extensions. These site-specific differences in N-glycan processing depend on cell type and individual (–). Similar to the unique restricted N-glycan processing seen for IgG-Fc Asn297, the Asn162 and Asn45 in FcγRIIIa also appear to exhibit restricted N-glycans processing. Furthermore, FcγRIIIa expressed on NK cells shows the highest level of oligomanosylated Asn162 and Asn45, followed by FcγRIIIa on monocytes and finally recombinantly expressed FcγRIIIa (). Recombinantly expressed FcγRIIIa obtains almost exclusively complex-type N-glycans that correlate with the repertoire of glycosyltransferases expressed in these respective cell lines ().
While the influence of glycosylation of IgG is well studied, few studies have addressed the influence of FcγRIIIa N-glycans on IgG binding and subsequent immune cell activation. Several limitations complicate FcγRIIIa glycan studies, such as the number of N-glycan sites with their inherent heterogeneity, the scarcity of endogenous FcγRIIIa material, and the fact that recombinantly expressed FcγRIIIa in HEK293 (, ), CHO (, ), NS0 (), and BHK () appears to have N-glycan structures dissimilar to those found on endogenously expressed FcγRIIIa (, ). However, recent studies of IgG : FcγRIIIa interactions revealed that FcγRIIIa with an oligomannose structure at Asn162 has increased binding capacity to IgG1 (, , ). Furthermore, FcγRIIIa with hybrid-type and truncated N-glycan, which existed of only the innermost GlcNAc at Asn162, also has an increased IgG1 affinity, whereas sialic acid (Sia) had a negative influence on IgG1 binding and was shown to induce increased dissociation (, , , ). Furthermore, several limitations, such as the experimental surface plasmon resonance (SPR) setup, antibody and FcγR allotype and glycosylation heterogeneity, make comparing affinity measurements across studies challenging. Due to the recent wide availability of gene editing, the heterogeneity of these N-glycans can now be limited and defined glycan structures of interest can be expressed on IgG and Fc Receptors, among many other glycoproteins (–).
Here, we aimed to systematically study the impact of N-glycosylation features on both IgG1 and FcγRIIIa in their interaction. For this, we produced a library of defined glycoengineered IgG1 and FcγRIIIa (158F and 158V allotypes) glycoproteins and tested these in binding by SPR. The results show that the interaction between afucosylated IgG and FcγRIIIa with oligomannose N-glycans produces the highest achievable affinity in our setup. Our study supports previous findings (, , , ) and demonstrates that N-glycosylation of not only IgG but also FcγRIIIa affects binding interactions. Furthermore, FcγR glycosylation studies in both health and disease should be performed to discover how the immune system regulates this glycosylation interplay to drive pro- or anti-inflammatory responses.
Results
Glycoengineering and production of recombinant IgG1 glycoforms
A panel of glycoengineered IgG1 (mAb SO57) (, ) with different N-glycoforms using stably glycoengineered CHO cells was previously generated (). In brief, we first established a CHO wildtype clone stably expressing IgG1 (IgG1-CHOWT) and used IgG1-CHOWT to generate a library of N-glycoengineered clones by knockout (KO) using CRISPR/Cas9 and stable knock-in (KI) of key glycosyltransferases in the N-glycosylation pathway using Zinc finger nucleases and the ObLiGaRe Strategy () (Figure 1, Supplementary Table S1). To obtain afucosylated IgG1, a Fut8 and B4galt1 KO was created, resulting in the IgG1-G0 clone. An Mgat1 KO was created (IgG1-Oligomannose) to obtain oligomannosylated IgG1 and KO of Mgat2 and Man2a1/2 resulted in hybrid (IgG1-Hybrid) and monoantennary (IgG1-Monoantennae) IgG1-expressing clone, respectively. To increase galactosylation compared to IgG1-CHOWT, the IgG1-G2F clone was created by KI of B4GALT1. To further increase linkage-specific sialylated IgG1, KI of ST3GAL4 or ST6GAL1 was introduced on top of the B4GALT1 KI clone, resulting in α2-3 linked (IgG1-G2FS(2-3)) or α2-6 linked Sia (IgG1-G2FS(2-6)), respectively, as previously described () (Figure 1, Supplementary Table S1).
Figure 1
The isolated glycoengineered IgG1 glycoforms were validated by SDS-PAGE for correct protein expression and purity, and to confirm concentration determination. All IgG1 glycoforms resulted in a heavy chain (HC) and low chain (LC) band of 50 and 25 kDa, respectively (Figure 2A). Further validation of glycosylation patterns was done by MALDI-TOF-MS employing linkage-specific sialic acid derivatization to differentiate between α2-3 and α2-6 linked Sia (Supplementary Figure S1) (
Figure 2

SDS-PAGE of purified recombinant IgG1 and FcγRIIIa-158F/V. Reducing SDS-PAGE of 1 μg purified (A) glycoengineered IgG1 produced in CHO cells with the heavy chain and light chain at ~50 and 30 kDa, respectively. (B) HEK293-expressed His- and AviTag-tagged FcγRIIIa-158F (left lane) and -158V (right lane) migrating as a broad band with a molecular weight ranging from 40 to 50 kDa. Designations for monosaccharides according to the CFG are indicated (
Glycoengineering and production of recombinant FcγRIIIa-158F/V glycoforms
FcγRIIIa has five consensus N-glycosites occupied by heterogeneous N-glycans. These display site-specific N-glycan structures and variation hereof in different cell types and individuals (
The produced FcγRIIIa-158F/V were validated by SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry to confirm N-glycan structures and evaluate glycan heterogeneity (Figures 2, 3, Supplementary Figures S3, 4). Glycoengineered FcγRIIIa resulted in a heterogeneous glycoprofile migrating as a broad band with an apparent molecular weight ranging from 40 to 50 kDa depending on clone, highlighting the N-glycan heterogeneity and mass contribution of the five N-glycans per FcγRIIIa molecule.
Figure 3

Site-specific N-glycan profiling of Asn162 FcγRIIIa-158F/V by LC-MS/MS. FcγRIIIa-158F and -158V expressed in (A) CHO and (B–H) HEK293 cells were digested by a combination of chymotrypsin and Glu-C and subjected to LC-MS/MS. Site-specific N-glycan profiling of Asn162 was carried out and the top 90% of the structures are represented relative to the most abundant structure (A.U. = 1) for FcγRIIIa-158F (dark grey, left) and -158V (light grey, right) with H: hexose, N: N-acetylhexosamine, F: fucose; S: Sialic acid. Proposed glycan structures are based on gene editing signatures and literature. Structures are depicted following the CFG notation (
For glycoprofiling, PNGaseF-released esterified N-glycans of FcγRIIIa-158F/V were analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS (Supplementary Figures S3, 4) (
N-glycan structures on both IgG1 and FcγRIIIa-158F/V influence their binding interaction
To study the role of N-glycoforms on the IgG1:FcγRIIIa interaction, we used the produced glycovariants for SPR analysis on the IBIS MX96 biosensor system, as described in Dekkers et al. (
We could confirm that FcγRIIIa-158V exhibited on average a 3-6 fold increased affinity for IgG1 compared to FcγRIIIa-158F regardless of the IgG1 glycoform tested (Figure 4, Supplementary Table S2). The highest affinity for all IgG1 glycoforms was seen to FcγRIIIa-Oligomannose with a 2-3 fold increase compared to all other FcγRIIIa glycoforms (Figure 4, Supplementary Table S2). Surprisingly, FcγRIIIa-Monoantennae and FcγRIIIa-Hybrid, carrying immature N-glycan structures often found on Asn162 expressed by native immune cells (
Figure 4

IgG1 and FcγRIIIa-158V binding. Surface plasmon resonance dissociation constant (KD) was determined from SPR analysis after biotinylated glycoengineered FcγRIIIa-158V was spotted at 4 concentrations and bound to glycoengineered IgG1 at 8 times dilution series. Calculation of the dissociation constant was performed by equilibrium fitting to Rmax= 500. Mean data is reported of three independent experiments for each IgG1:FcγRIIIa-158V pair.
As expected, the highest affinity of all FcγRIIIa receptors was observed to afucosylated IgG, both IgG1-G0 and the IgG1-Oligomannose (Figure 4, Supplementary Table S2) (
Discussion
Here, we systemically produced a library of defined N-glycoforms of FcγRIIIa (both 158F/V allotypes) and IgG1 to study N-glycosylation binding features and used combinations of these glycoforms with SPR to evaluate binding kinetics. Our study demonstrated that rather homogenous N-glycoforms of FcγRIIIa and IgG1 can be produced in genetically glycoengineered CHO and HEK293 mammalian cells as previously reported (
In our setup, a remarkable >300-fold difference in binding affinities was observed among the different IgG1 glycoforms and FcγRIIIa allotype and glycoforms tested. It is however important to note that these results are based on in vitro binding KD values and may not fully translate into the in vivo properties of these interactions. In vivo, monovalent IgG competes with multivalent IgG-immunocomplexes or IgG-opsonized pathogens for FcR binding, of which only the latter results in FcγR-mediated cellular activation. Nevertheless, the reported relative binding affinities between FcγRIIIa and IgG1 are known to be reproducibly translated into relative differences in cellular effector functions as well as in vivo functional capacities (
The FcγRIIIa-158V allotype has a higher binding affinity to IgG1 compared to the 158F allotype (
In this setup, the highest affinity to IgG1 was indeed seen for FcγRIIIa-Oligomannose, which was on average 2-3 fold better compared to all other FcγRIIIa glycoforms, in agreement with recent reports (
Our studies demonstrated that the combination of oligomannosylated FcγRIIIa had the highest binding affinity to afucosylated IgG1, which is in agreement with previous reports (
In summary, our study demonstrates that the N-glycosylation status of both FcγRIIIa and IgG1 influences binding affinity, highlighting the need to consider the N-glycosylation state of both IgG and Fc receptors in binding kinetics and effector function studies. The two most significant N-glycosylation features observed were the IgG1 core fucosylation state and FcγRIIIa oligomannose to complex N-glycosylation transition. We predict that the bilateral glycan interplay enables the immune system to fine-tune the FcγRIIIa and IgG interactions and modulate immune responses.
Methods
Cell culture
HEK293 were grown in suspension in serum-free F17 culture media (Invitrogen) supplemented with 0.1% Kolliphor P188 (SIGMA) and 4 mM GlutaMax as previously described (
CRISPR/Cas9 targeted KO in HEK293 cells
KO was performed using a validated gRNA library for all human glycosyltransferases (GlycoCRISPR) (72), as previously described (73). In brief, HEK293 cells were seeded in 6-well plates (NUNC), transfected with 1 μg of gRNA and 1 μg of GFP-tagged Cas9-PBKS using Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen) according to manufacturer’s instructions. Cells were harvested after 24 hours, and bulk sorted for GFP expression by FACS (SONY SH800). After culturing, the sorted cell pool was further single-sorted into 96 well plates and screened by Indel Detection by Amplicon Analysis (IDAA) (74), and indels of selected clones were confirmed by Sanger sequencing.
CRISPR/Cas9-targeted KO in CHO cells
One day prior to transfection, cells were seeded in T25 flasks (NUNC). Electroporation was conducted with 2 × 106 cells with 1 μg of both endotoxin-free plasmid DNA of Cas9-GFP and gRNA in the U6GRNA plasmid (Addgene Plasmid #68370) using Amaxa Kit V and program U-24 with Amaxa Nucleofector 2B (Lonza). Electroporated cells were moved to a 6-well plate with 3 ml growth media. Forty-eight hours after nucleofection, the 10–15% highest GFP-labeled pool of cells was enriched by FACS, and after one week of culturing, cells were single-cell sorted by FACS (SONY SH800) into 96-well plates. KO clones were identified by IDAA, as mentioned above, as well as immunocytology with appropriate lectins or monoclonal antibodies, whenever possible. Selected clones were further verified by Sanger sequencing.
ZFN/CRISPR-mediated KI in CHO cells
Site-specific CHO Safe-Harbor locus KI was based on ObLiGaRe strategy (
IgG1 expression and purification
The anti-rabies human IgG1 SO57 (
Transient expression of soluble FcγRIIIa in HEK cells and protein purification
HEK293-6E cells were seeded at a cell density of 0.5 × 106 cells/ml and transfected with FcγRIIIa-158F/V with 10X his-tag and AviTag™ the next day with 1:3 μg DNA : PEI per 1 × 106 cells. Secreted protein was harvested after 72 hours and purified from culture medium by nickel affinity chromatography. For this, the culture medium was centrifuged, filtered (0.45 μm), mixed 3:1 (v/v) in 4X binding buffer (100 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.4, 2 M NaCl) and applied to self-packed nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) affinity resin column (Qiagen), which was pre-equilibrated in washing buffer (25 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.4, 500 mM NaCl, 20 mM imidazole). After washing, bound protein was eluted with 250 mM imidazole in washing buffer. Purity and quantification were evaluated by SDS-PAGE and Coomassie staining. Purified protein was buffer-exchanged to approximately 1 mg/ml in 50mM AmBic buffer with 2 ml Zeba Spin Desalting Column 7K MWCO (ThermoFisher).
Stable expression of soluble FcγRIIIa in CHO cells and protein purification
Both FcγRIIIa-158F/V with 10X his-tag and AviTag™ constructs were both subcloned into a modified pCGS3 vector (Merck/Sigma-Aldrich) for glutamine selection in CHOZN GS−/− cells (Sigma). CHO cells were seeded at 0.5 X 106 cells/ml in T25 flasks (NUNC) one day prior to transfection. Two million cells were electroporated with 5 μg plasmids using Amaxa kit V and program U24 with Amaxa Nucleofector 2B (Lonza) and plated in 6-wells with 3 ml growth media. Three days after transfection, cells were plated in 96-wells at 1000 cells/well in 200 μl Minipool Plating Medium containing 80% EX-CELL® CHO Cloning Medium and EX-CELL CHO CD Fusion serum-free media without glutamine (Sigmaaldrich). High-expressing clones were selected by testing the medium using anti-HIS antibodies, and selected clones were scaled up in serum-free media without L-glutamine TPP TubeSpin® shaking Bioreactors (180 rpm, 37 °C, and 5% CO2) for protein production. FcγRIIIa was purified as described above.
N-glycan profiling by MALDI-TOF
N-glycan protein profiling employing linkage-specific sialic acid esterification was obtained as described by Reiding et al. (
Sample preparation for site-specific N-glycopeptide analysis
The purified protein was dissolved in 50mM ammonium bicarbonate buffer, reduced in 10 mM dithiothreitol (DTT), alkylated with 20 mM iodoacetamide (IAA), reduced again with 10 mM DTT, and digested with 1:20 chymotrypsin:protein followed by 1:20 GluC:protein (Roche). The proteolytic digest was desalted by in-house produced modified StageTip columns containing 3 layers of C18 membrane (3M Empore disks, Sigma Aldrich) (76). Samples were eluted with 50% methanol in 0.1% formic acid (FA), dried down, and re-solubilized in 0.1% FA for LC-MS/MS analysis.
Site-specific FcγRIIIa N-glycopeptide analysis by LC-MS/MS
LC-MS/MS analysis was performed on EASY-nLC 1200 UHPLC (Thermo Scientific) interfaced via nanoSpray Flex ion source to an Orbitrap Fusion Lumos MS (Thermo Scientific). Briefly, the nLC was operated in a single analytical column set up using PicoFrit Emitters (New Objectives, 75 μm inner diameter) packed in-house with Reprosil-Pure-AQ C18 phase (Dr. Maisch, 1.9-μm particle size, 19-21 cm column length). Each sample was injected onto the column and eluted in gradients from 3 to 32% B in 75 min, and from 32% to 100% B in 10 min, and 100% B for 10 min at 200 nL/min (Solvent A, 100% H2O; Solvent B, 80% acetonitrile; both containing 0.1% (v/v) formic acid). A precursor MS1 scan (m/z 350–2 000) of intact peptides was acquired in the Orbitrap at the nominal resolution setting of 120 000, followed by Orbitrap HCD-MS2 and at the nominal resolution setting of 60 000 of the five most abundant multiply charged precursors in the MS1 spectrum; a minimum MS1 signal threshold of 50 000 was used for triggering data-dependent fragmentation events. Targeted MS/MS analysis was performed by setting up a targeted MSn (tMSn) Scan Properties pane. A target list was composed of the top 30 most abundant glycans or glycopeptides from the proposed compositional list. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD035846.
Data analysis
Glycan and glycopeptide compositional analysis was performed from m/z features extracted from LC-MS data using in-house written SysBioWare software, as previously described (
Surface plasmon resonance
Prior to SPR measurements, glycoengineered FcγRIIIa was site-specifically biotinylated on the BirA tag using BirA enzyme as described by Rodenko et al. (78). For biotinylation of 1 µM FcγRIIIa protein, 3.3 nM BirA ligase was used. After biotinylation overnight at 25°C, the biotinylated FcγRIIIa mixture was buffer-exchanged and subsequently concentrated in PBS pH 7.4 using Amicon Ultra centrifugal filter units (MWCO 3 kDa) (Merck, Millipore).
The biotinylated, recombinant, human FcγRIIIa-158F and 158V from SinoBiological (10389-H27H-B and 10389-H27H1-B, respectively) were used as an control for SPR. SPR measurements were performed on an IBIS MX96 (IBIS technologies) device as described previously by Dekkers et al. (
The biotinylated FcγRIIIa were spotted in 4 concentrations with a 3-fold dilution ranging from 0.3 to 100nM, depending on the FcγRIIIa in PBS supplemented with 0.075% Tween-80 (VWR, M126–100ml), pH 7.4. Glycoengineered IgG1 was then injected over the IBIS at 8 times dilution series starting at 15.6 nM until 2000 nM in PBS + 0.075% Tween-80. Regeneration after every sample was carried out with 10 nM Gly-HCl, pH 2.4. Calculation of the dissociation constant (KD) was performed by equilibrium fitting to Rmax= 500. Analysis and calculation of all binding data were carried out with Scrubber software version 2 (Biologic Software) and Excel. Three independent experiments for each receptor/Fc pair were carried out on at least two different days and representative data are reported.
Funding
This work was supported by the Lundbeck Foundation, The Novo Nordisk Foundation, European Commission (GlycoImaging H2020-MSCA-ITN-721297, BioCapture H2020-MSCA-ITN-722171), the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF107), the National Institutes of Health (AI114730 and R01AI41513, R01AI106987, U01OD024857), Kuang Hua Educational Foundation, The Carlsberg Foundation CF20-0412 and the Landsteiner foundation for Blood Transfusion Research (LSBR) grants 1721 and 1908, and ZonMW COVID-19 grants 1043001 201 0021. Noortje de Haan has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (GlycoSkin H2020-ERC; 772735).
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Statements
Data availability statement
The data presented in the study are deposited in the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository, accession number PXD035846.
Author contributions
JVC, HC, and ZY conceived and designed the study. JVC, AB, NdH, MS, LH, ZY, SV, RM, DG and WvE contributed with experimental data and interpretation. JVC, HC, ZY, and GV wrote the manuscript. All authors edited and approved the final version.
Conflict of interest
The University of Copenhagen has filed a patent application for the cell-based display platform. GlycoDisplay Aps, Copenhagen, Denmark, has obtained a license in the field of the patent application. Authors YN, ZY, and HC are co-founders of GlycoDisplay Aps and hold ownerships in the company.
The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.987151/full#supplementary-material
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Summary
Keywords
Fc gamma receptors, CD16a, mAbs, IgG, glycoengineering, N-glycosylation, glycosyltransferases, surface plasmon resonance
Citation
Van Coillie J, Schulz MA, Bentlage AEH, de Haan N, Ye Z, Geerdes DM, van Esch WJE, Hafkenscheid L, Miller RL, Narimatsu Y, Vakhrushev SY, Yang Z, Vidarsson G and Clausen H (2022) Role of N-Glycosylation in FcγRIIIa interaction with IgG. Front. Immunol. 13:987151. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.987151
Received
05 July 2022
Accepted
16 August 2022
Published
09 September 2022
Volume
13 - 2022
Edited by
Falk Nimmerjahn, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Germany
Reviewed by
Dapeng Zhou, Tongji University, China; Eric J. Sundberg, Emory University, United States; Friedrich Altmann, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
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Copyright
© 2022 Van Coillie, Schulz, Bentlage, de Haan, Ye, Geerdes, van Esch, Hafkenscheid, Miller, Narimatsu, Vakhrushev, Yang, Vidarsson and Clausen.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zhang Yang, yang@sund.ku.dk; Gestur Vidarsson, g.vidarsson@sanquin.nl; Henrik Clausen, hclau@sund.ku.dk
†Present address: Zhang Yang, Department of Cell Therapy Discovery, Novo Nordisk A/S, Måløv, Denmark
This article was submitted to B Cell Biology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Immunology
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