Affiliation:
1. Department of Immunology, Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, D-50931 Cologne, Germany
Abstract
To study homeostasis of peripheral B lymphocytes in the absence of B cell influx from the bone marrow, we generated a mouse mutant in which the recombination-activating gene (RAG)-2 can be inducibly deleted. When RAG-2 was deleted at the age of 8–10 wk, splenic naive follicular B cells were gradually lost over a year of observation, with a half-life of ∼4.5 mo. By contrast, the pool of marginal zone B cells in the spleen and of B-1 cells in the peritoneal cavity were kept at normal level. In lymph nodes, ∼90% of the B cells were lost within 4 mo, and B cell numbers remained constant thereafter. Mice in which RAG-2 was deleted at birth maintained a small population of activated B cells with an increased proportion of marginal zone B cells. Additionally, an increase of the pool of IgM secreting cells and B-1a cells was observed.
Publisher
Rockefeller University Press
Subject
Immunology,Immunology and Allergy
Cited by
275 articles.
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