Receptor editing is a process that occurs during the maturation of B cells, which are part of the adaptive immune system. This process has the aim to change the specificity of the antigen

Antigen

An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...

 receptor of immature B-cells, in order to rescue them from programmed cell death, called apoptosis

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation...

.

During maturation in the bone marrow, B cells are tested for interaction with self antigens, which is called negative selection

Negative selection

Negative selection may refer to:*Negative selection , in natural selection it refers to the selective removal of rare alleles that are deleterious...

. If the maturing B cells strongly interact with these self antigens, they undergo death by apoptosis. Negative selection is important to avoid the production of B cells that could cause autoimmune diseases. They can avoid apoptosis by modifying the sequence of light chain V and J genes (components of the antigen receptor) so that it has a different specificity and may not recognize self antigens anymore. This process of changing the specificity of the immature B cell receptor is called receptor editing.