Integrated signaling in developing lymphocytes: The role of DNA damage responses

Lymphocyte development occurs in a stepwise progression through distinct developmental stages. This ordered maturation ensures that cells express a single, non-autoreactive antigen receptor, which is the cornerstone of a diverse adaptive immune response. Expression of a mature antigen receptor requires assembly of the antigen receptor genes by the process of V(D)J recombination, a reaction that joins distant gene segments through DNA double-strand break (DSB) intermediates. These physiologic DSBs are generated by the recombinase-activating gene (RAG) -1 and -2 proteins, and their generation is regulated by lymphocyte and developmental stage-specific signals from cytokine receptors and antigen receptor chains. Collectively, these signals ensure that V(D)J recombination of specific antigen receptor genes occurs at discrete developmental stages. Once generated, RAG-induced DSBs activate the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase to orchestrate a multifaceted DNA damage response that ensures proper DSB repair. In response to RAG DSBs, ATM also regulates a cell type-specific transcriptional response, and here we discuss how this genetic program integrates with other cellular cues to regulate lymphocyte development

The anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-2 can functionally substitute for the B cell survival but not for the marginal zone B cell differentiation activity of BAFF.

The TNF family ligand B cell-activating factor (BAFF, BLyS, TALL-1) is an essential factor for B cell development. BAFF binds to three receptors, BAFF-R, transmembrane activator and CAML interactor (TACI), and B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), but only BAFF-R is required for successful survival and maturation of splenic B cells. To test whether the effect of BAFF is due to the up-regulation of anti-apoptotic factors, TACI-Ig-transgenic mice, in which BAFF function is inhibited, were crossed with transgenic mice expressing FLICE-inhibitory protein (FLIP) or Bcl-2 in the B cell compartment. FLIP expression did not rescue B cells, while enforced Bcl-2 expression restored peripheral B cells and the ability to mount T-dependent antibody responses. However, many B cells retained immaturity markers and failed to express normal amounts of CD21. Marginal zone B cells were not restored and the T-independent IgG3, but not IgM, response was impaired in the TACI-IgxBcl-2 mice. These results suggest that BAFF is required not only to inhibit apoptosis of maturating B cells, but also to promote differentiation events, in particular those leading to the generation of marginal zone B cells

Device for electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve

A device for auricular electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve was developed. The advantage of the developed product is the possibility of changing the shape of the stimulation signal, setting the duration of the stimulation session and monitoring the impedance of the load during the stimulation procedure

Identifying Activated T Cells in Reconstituted RAG Deficient Mice Using Retrovirally Transduced Pax5 Deficient Pro-B Cells

Various methods have been used to identify activated T cells such as binding of MHC tetramers and expression of cell surface markers in addition to cytokine-based assays. In contrast to these published methods, we here describe a strategy to identify T cells that respond to any antigen and track the fate of these activated T cells. We constructed a retroviral double-reporter construct with enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) and a far-red fluorescent protein from Heteractis crispa (HcRed). LTR-driven EGFP expression was used to enrich and identify transduced cells, while HcRed expression is driven by the CD40Ligand (CD40L) promoter, which is inducible and enables the identification and cell fate tracing of T cells that have responded to infection/inflammation. Pax5 deficient pro-B cells that can give rise to different hematopoietic cells like T cells, were retrovirally transduced with this double-reporter cassette and were used to reconstitute the T cell pool in RAG1 deifcient mice that lack T and B cells. By using flow cytometry and histology, we identified activated T cells that had developed from Pax5 deficient pro-B cells and responded to infection with the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Microscopic examination of organ sections allowed visual identification of HcRed-expressing cells. To further characterize the immune response to a given stimuli, this strategy can be easily adapted to identify other cells of the hematopoietic system that respond to infection/inflammation. This can be achieved by using an inducible reporter, choosing the appropriate promoter, and reconstituting mice lacking cells of interest by injecting gene-modified Pax5 deficient pro-B cells

Allosuppressor and allohelper T cells in acute and chronic graft-vs.-host disease. II. F1 recipients carrying mutations at H-2K and/or I-A.

By induction of a graft-vs.-host reaction (GVHR) in nonirradiated H-2-different F1 mice, one can induce stimulatory pathological symptoms, such as lymphadenopathy and hypergammaglobulinemia, combined with the production of autoantibodies characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Alternatively, the GVHR can lead to the suppressive pathological symptoms, such as pancytopenia and hypogammaglobulinemia, characteristic of acute GVH disease (GVHD). Whether stimulatory or suppressive symptoms are induced by a GVHR depends, in our view (2-4), on the functional subset of donor T cells activated in the F1 host. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether class I and/or class II H-2 alloantigens can selectively trigger, out of a pool of unselected donor T cells, those subpopulations of T cells responsible for the stimulatory and suppressive GVH symptoms, respectively. For the induction of the GVHR, 10(8) lymphoid cells from C57BL/6 (B6) donors were injected into three kinds of F1 hybrid mice, which had been bred from H-2 mutant strains on a B6 background. Whereas the I-A-disparate (B6 X bm12)F1 recipients exclusively developed stimulatory GVH symptoms, including SLE-like autoantibodies and immune complex glomerulonephritis, the K locus-disparate (B6 X bm1)F1 recipients showed neither clearly stimulatory nor clearly suppressive GVH symptoms. In marked contrast, the (bm1 X bm12)F1 recipients, which differ from the B6 donor strain by mutations at both K and I-A locus, initially developed stimulatory GVH symptoms, but rapidly thereafter showed the suppressive pathological symptoms of acute GVHD and died. Moreover, spleen cells obtained from (B6 X bm12)F1 mice injected with B6 donor cells helped the primary anti-sheep erythrocyte (SRBC) response of normal (B6 X bm12)F1 spleen cells in vitro, whereas spleen cells (bm1 X bm12)F1 mice injected with B6 donor cells strongly suppressed the primary anti-SRBC response of normal (bm1 X bm12)F1 spleen cells. Spleen cells from the K locus-disparate (B6 X bm1)F1 recipients also suppressed the primary anti-SRBC of normal (B6 X bm1)F1 spleen cells; this suppression, however, was weak when compared with the suppression induced by spleen cells from GVH (bm1 X bm12)F1 mice. Taken together, these findings indicate that a small class II (I-A) antigenic difference suffices to trigger the alloreactive donor T helper cells causing SLE-like GVHD. In contrast, both class I (H-2K) and class II (I-A) differences are required to trigger the subsets of donor T cells responsible for acute GVHD. It appears that alloreactive donor T helper cells induce the alloreactive T suppressor cells, which then act as the suppressor effector cells causing the pancytopenia of acute GVHD. These findings may help to understand the variability of GVH-like diseases caused by a given etiologic agent, their cellular pathogenesis, and association with certain HLA loc

Crucial Role for BAFF-BAFF-R Signaling in the Survival and Maintenance of Mature B Cells

Defects in the expression of either BAFF (B cell activating factor) or BAFF-R impairs B cell development beyond the immature, transitional type-1 stage and thus, prevents the formation of follicular and marginal zone B cells, whereas B-1 B cells remain unaffected. The expression of BAFF-R on all mature B cells might suggest a role for BAFF-R signaling also for their in vivo maintenance. Here, we show that, 14 days following a single injection of an anti-BAFF-R mAb that prevents BAFF binding, both follicular and marginal zone B cell numbers are drastically reduced, whereas B-1 cells are not affected. Injection of control, isotype-matched but non-blocking anti-BAFF-R mAbs does not result in B cell depletion. We also show that this depletion is neither due to antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity nor to complement-mediated lysis. Moreover, prevention of BAFF binding leads to a decrease in the size of the B cell follicles, an impairment of a T cell dependent humoral immune response and a reduction in the formation of memory B cells. Collectively, these results establish a central role for BAFF-BAFF-R signaling in the in vivo survival and maintenance of both follicular and marginal zone B cell pools

Enforced Expression of the Transcriptional Coactivator OBF1 Impairs B Cell Differentiation at the Earliest Stage of Development

OBF1, also known as Bob.1 or OCA-B, is a B lymphocyte-specific transcription factor which coactivates Oct1 and Oct2 on B cell specific promoters. So far, the function of OBF1 has been mainly identified in late stage B cell populations. The central defect of OBF1 deficient mice is a severely reduced immune response to T cell-dependent antigens and a lack of germinal center formation in the spleen. Relatively little is known about a potential function of OBF1 in developing B cells. Here we have generated transgenic mice overexpressing OBF1 in B cells under the control of the immunoglobulin heavy chain promoter and enhancer. Surprisingly, these mice have greatly reduced numbers of follicular B cells in the periphery and have a compromised immune response. Furthermore, B cell differentiation is impaired at an early stage in the bone marrow: a first block is observed during B cell commitment and a second differentiation block is seen at the large preB2 cell stage. The cells that succeed to escape the block and to differentiate into mature B cells have post-translationally downregulated the expression of transgene, indicating that expression of OBF1 beyond the normal level early in B cell development is deleterious. Transcriptome analysis identified genes deregulated in these mice and Id2 and Id3, two known negative regulators of B cell differentiation, were found to be upregulated in the EPLM and preB cells of the transgenic mice. Furthermore, the Id2 and Id3 promoters contain octamer-like sites, to which OBF1 can bind. These results provide evidence that tight regulation of OBF1 expression in early B cells is essential to allow efficient B lymphocyte differentiation

Development of an isoform-specific gene suppression system: the study of the human Pax-5B transcriptional element

The transcription factor Pax-5, is vital during B lymphocyte differentiation and is known to contribute to the oncogenesis of certain cancers. The Pax-5 locus generates multiple yet structurally related mRNA transcripts through the specific activation of alternative promoter regions and/or alternative splicing events which poses challenges in the study of specific isoform function. In this study, we investigated the function of a major Pax-5 transcript, Pax-5B using an enhanced version of the Hepatitis Delta Virus ribozyme (HDV Rz) suppression system that is specifically designed to recognize and cleave the human Pax-5B mRNA. The activity of these ribozymes resulted in the specific suppression of the Pax-5B transcripts without altering the transcript levels of other closely related Pax-5 isoforms mRNAs both in vitro and in an intracellular setting. Following stable transfection of the ribozymes into a model B cell line (REH), we showed that Pax-5B suppression led to an increase of CD19 mRNA and cell surface protein expression. In response to this Pax-5B specific deregulation, a marked increase in apoptotic activity compared to control cell lines was observed. These results suggest that Pax-5B has distinct roles in physiological processes in cell fate events during lymphocyte development

B Cells Participate in Thymic Negative Selection of Murine Auto-reactive CD4+ T Cells

It is well documented that thymic epithelial cells participate in the process of negative selection in the thymus. In recent years it was reported that also dendritic cells enter the thymus and contribute to this process, thus allowing for the depletion of thymocytes that are specific to peripherally expressed self-antigens. Here we report that also B cells may take part in the elimination of auto-reactive thymocytes. Using a unique mouse model we show that B cells induce negative selection of self-reactive thymocytes in a process that leads to the deletion of these cells whereas regulatory T cells are spared. These findings have direct implication in autoimmunity, as expression of a myelin antigen by B cells in the thymus renders the mice resistant to autoimmune inflammation of the CNS