CBA/N mice have an X-linked B-cell maturation defect which is reflected in part in an absence or dysfunction of a subclass of mature B cells. We have immunized the defective male offspring of the mating (CBA/N female X BALB/c male) with BALB/c spleen cells. The resulting antiserum (alphaLyb3) selectively reacts with a component on the surface of a portion of B cells from a panel of H-2 different mouse strains. Binding of alphaLyb3 serum to this B-cell subclass results in substantial (10- to 20-fold) enhancement of the antibody response to low doses of SRBC. Both binding and enhancing activity are removed by absorption with B cells from B6 and BALB/c, but not CBA/N mice. Absorption of the serum with bone marrow cells, T cells, or thymocytes from Lyb3+ strains does not remove activity. Since the enhanced plaque-forming cell (PFC) responses are specific for the immunizing antigen, and since no PFC response is produced by injection of the antiserum alone, this enhancement probably reflects a second signal produced by specific interaction between antibody and the surface Lyb3 component. Moreover, this signal can partially replace the requirement for T cells in the production of antibody to a "thymus-dependent" antigen. These findings (taken in conjunction with the previously described immune defects in CBA/N mice and other studies of B-cell maturation) suggest to us that Lyb3 is a cell surface component expressed selectively on a mature B-cell subclass. This component is important in B-cell triggering by antigen and fails to develop in CBA/N mice, due to a dysfunction of a regulatory gene on the CBA/N X chromosome.
Article|
January 01 1977
Identification of a B-cell surface structure involved in antigen-dependent triggering: absence of this structure on B cells from CBA/N mutant mice.
B Huber
R K Gershon
H Cantor
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
J Exp Med (1977) 145 (1): 10–20.
Citation
B Huber, R K Gershon, H Cantor; Identification of a B-cell surface structure involved in antigen-dependent triggering: absence of this structure on B cells from CBA/N mutant mice.. J Exp Med 1 January 1977; 145 (1): 10–20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.145.1.10
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