T helper cells recognize an idiotope located on peptide 88-114/117 of the light chain variable domain of an isologous myeloma protein (315).

Isolated variable region light chain 315 (VL-315), the VL domain of a myeloma protein of BALB/c origin, induces T cells of BALB/c (H-2d) mice that help the adoptive secondary anti-4-hydroxy-3-iodo-5-nitrophenylacetyl (NIP) antibody response to NIP-Fab315. The location of the epitope recognized by helper cells was examined with two fragments of VL-315, obtained by cleavage with cyanogen bromide at Met 87. Both N-terminal fragment 1-86 and C-terminal fragment 88-114/117 elicited BALB/c antibodies that bound to the respective fragments and to VL-315. By contrast, only fragment 88-114/117, which consists of the third hypervariable region, J region, and 5-7 amino acids of the C region, induced helper cells that augmented the anti-NIP response to NIP-Fab 315.