B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-CLL) Cells Unresponsive to CD180 Ligation Fail to Respond to Anti-IgM Stimulation as Well

Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 3582-3582
Author(s):  
Nino Porakishvili ◽  
Peter Lydyard ◽  
Anna Bremser ◽  
Ketki Vispute ◽  
Azka Memon ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 3582 Introduction: We have demonstrated that CD180, an orphan receptor of the Toll-like receptor family, is expressed heterogeneously on B-CLL cells, mainly on those with mutated IGVH genes. We further showed that specific ligation of CD180 with mAbs induced activation and cycling of only ~50% CD180+ B-CLL clones (“R”: responders), while CD180+ B-CLL cells unresponsive to CD180 ligation (“NR”: non-responders) or CD180− B-CLL cells could not be activated through either CD40 or IL-4 suggesting anergy. Because CD180 has a short intracellular domain, it presumably, signals through pathways associated with other receptors, such as smIgM. Indeed, engagement of smIgM or CD180 induces Lyn and Syk phosphorylation. Here we compare activation, cycling and phosphorylation of intracellular protein kinases in R and NR and CD180− B-CLL clones and B lymphocytes from healthy subjects upon ligation of smIgM. Methods: B-CLL cells were analyzed for smCD180 and smIgM, and sm CD180+IgM+ B-CLL clones were categorized as R and NR by responsiveness to CD180 ligation. Leukemic clones from 15 smCD180+IgM+R, 14 smCD180+IgM+NR, 12 smCD180−IgM+ untreated B-CLL patients and 14 healthy age-matched individuals were stimulated with goat F(ab’)2 anti-human IgM pAbs for 72h, and stained with PE~anti-CD86 mAbs, or fixed, permeabilized and stained with PE~anti-Ki-67 to assess B-cell activation and cycling, respectively. In order to study early intracellular signalling events, cells were stimulated with the same antibodies for 20 min, fixed, permeabilized and stained with Alexa Fluor~rabbit/mouse antibodies to phospho-Akt, phospho-ERK, phospho-p38MAPK, and phospho-ZAP70/Syk. Unstimulated cells in medium were used as controls. Results were assessed by flow cytometry and analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test and paired t-test where appropriate. Results: ligation of sIgM on smCD180+IgM+R B-CLL cells resulted in a significant increase in CD86+ cells (66.3±21.7% vs 18.7±12.0%, p=0.00004) and Ki-67+ cells (38.9±10.5% vs 11.1±5.9%, p=0.0001) compared to medium controls; this was not different from the increase in activation and cycling of normal B cells (not shown). In contrast, smCD180+IgM+NR B-CLL cells failed to significantly upregulate CD86 in response to anti-IgM pAbs (20.6±13.8% vs 17.6±13.7%, p=0.334) and Ki-67 (8.4±4.6% vs 5.3±1.4%, p=0.063). Interestingly, smCD180−IgM+ B-CLL cells demonstrated diminished CD86 upregulation following sIgM ligation: 36.9±21.7% vs 11.0±4.7% in medium, p=0.058 (difference with smCD180+IgM+R B-CLL, p=0.0069). Cell cycling was also decreased: 9.7±4.1% vs 5.4±3.6% in medium, p=0.015 (difference with smCD180+IgM+R, p=0.0022). The proximal stages of anti-smIgM responses were further studied by intracellular signalling of protein kinases associated with the IgM-signalling pathway. While ligation of sIgM on control B cells and smCD180+IgM+R B-CLL cells resulted in phosphorylation of all four enzymes studied, smCD180+IgM+NR cells failed to signal downstream from ZAP70/Syk following sIgM ligation (Table 1), although there was a greater heterogeneity in smCD180+IgM+R B-CLL responses, compared to normal B cells. Importantly, smIgM ligation of smCD180−IgM+ B-CLL cells did not increase phosphorylation of Erk or p38MAPK, although some such clones responded to smIgM ligation by phosphorylation of ZAP70/Syk and Akt (data not shown). Conclusions: B-CLL clones that are smCD180+IgM+ but unresponsive to CD180 ligation (~30% of all B-CLL cases) are also unresponsive (anergic) to smIgM ligation measured by intracellular signalling, cell activation and cycling. Meanwhile, smCD180−IgM+ B-CLL clones respond heterogeneously to IgM crosslinking. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Rincon-Arevalo ◽  
Annika Wiedemann ◽  
Ana-Luisa Stefanski ◽  
Marie Lettau ◽  
Franziska Szelinski ◽  
...  

Circulating CD11c+ B cells are a key phenomenon in certain types of autoimmunity but have also been described in the context of regular immune responses (i.e., infections, vaccination). Using mass cytometry to profile 46 different markers on individual immune cells, we systematically initially confirmed the presence of increased CD11c+ B cells in the blood of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Notably, significant differences in the expression of CD21, CD27, and CD38 became apparent between CD11c− and CD11c+ B cells. We observed direct correlation of the frequency of CD21−CD27− B cells and CD21−CD38− B cells with CD11c+ B cells, which were most pronounced in SLE compared to primary Sjögren's syndrome patients (pSS) and healthy donors (HD). Thus, CD11c+ B cells resided mainly within memory subsets and were enriched in CD27−IgD−, CD21−CD27−, and CD21−CD38− B cell phenotypes. CD11c+ B cells from all donor groups (SLE, pSS, and HD) showed enhanced CD69, Ki-67, CD45RO, CD45RA, and CD19 expression, whereas the membrane expression of CXCR5 and CD21 were diminished. Notably, SLE CD11c+ B cells showed enhanced expression of the checkpoint molecules CD86, PD1, PDL1, CD137, VISTA, and CTLA-4 compared to HD. The substantial increase of CD11c+ B cells with a CD21− phenotype co-expressing distinct activation and checkpoint markers, points to a quantitative increased alternate (extrafollicular) B cell activation route possibly related to abnormal immune regulation as seen under the striking inflammatory conditions of SLE which shows a characteristic PD-1/PD-L1 upregulation.


Blood ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. 1881-1886 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Fournier ◽  
M Rubio ◽  
G Delespesse ◽  
M Sarfati

Abstract CD23 gene is overexpressed and abnormally regulated in the most frequent adult leukemic disorder, B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B- CLL). Switch on and off in the upregulation of surface CD23 expression consistently occurs in the early stage of normal B-cell activation, suggesting a key role for CD23 in this process. We show here that, after ligation of mlg in the presence of interleukin-4, the increase of CD23 protein precedes B-cell DNA synthesis and mainly results from the strong induction of CD23 type-B isoform. Exposure of normal B cells to conventional or phosphorothioate-derivatized CD23 antisense oligonucleotides (predominantly type B) significantly augments B-cell proliferation induced by antigen receptor stimulation or direct contact with activated T cells. Unexpectedly, CD23 antisense, but not sense, oligonucleotides specifically enhance rather than suppress CD23 expression on B cells. Finally, a selective increase in CD23 type-B expression provokes the entry of resting (Go) CLL B cells into G1 and S phase of the cell cycle in the absence of any other stimulus, whereas it synergizes with tumor necrosis factor-alpha to increase the number of activated B cells. These results provide compelling evidence that CD23 represents an important molecule directly involved in the process of normal or leukemic B-cell activation and growth.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 4775-4775
Author(s):  
Nino Porakishvili ◽  
Maria Manoussaka ◽  
Nino Kulikova ◽  
James Walton ◽  
Amit Nathwani ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: We have previously shown that Toll-like receptor RP105 (CD180) is heterogeneously expressed on B-CLL cells and that the ligation of CD180 by monoclonal antibodies (mAb) on CD180+ B-CLL cells resulted in delineation of responder and non-responder B-CLL clones [1]. In this study we have examined the role of IL-4 together with CD180 and CD40 as activation signals. Methods: Blood mononuclear cells were separated from 7 responder B-CLL patients with both mutated and unmutated Ig Vh genes and 11 controls and were cultured for 72 hours in optimum concentrations of anti-CD180 (G28-8) or anti-CD40 mAb or both in presence and absence of 15 ng/ml of IL-4. CD19+ B cells were stained with mAb to the activation marker CD86 or cell cycle protein Ki-67, measured by flow cytometry and expressed as Mean Fluorescence Intensity (MFI) or % of Ki-67+ cells. Results: B-CLL cells and normal control B cells responded to CD180-ligation by activation and proliferation (Table). Higher levels of CD86 and Ki67 were detected when both anti CD40 mAb and anti CD180 mAb were added (p<0.05) compared with either alone. IL4 alone induced both activation and proliferation of control cells and this was even higher with the leukemic cells (p<0.01) confirming that IL-4 also provides a strong survival/activatory stimulus for B-CLL cells. Addition of IL-4 had no significant enhancing effect on normal B-cells stimulated with both anti-CD180 and anti-CD40, although IL-4 synergised with anti-CD40 in B cell activation (p=0.026) and with CD180 in B cell proliferation (p=0.044). Conclusion: CD180 had an additive effect with CD40 ligation in activation and proliferation of both B-CLL cells and normal control B cells. IL-4 provides a strong additional stimulus for B-CLL cells. CD86 and Ki-67 expression by CD19+ cells CD86 Ki67 B-CLL Control B-CLL control Spontaneous −IL-4 7.2±4.1 4.0±1.0 8.1±2.7 17.4±2.3 +IL-4 22.4±11.8 11.2±4.2 17.0±12.8 23.6±14.8 CD180 −IL-4 14.7±5.8 26.9±13.0 17.1±10.9 28.1±12.0 +IL-4 35.4±14.5 30.0±14.6 26.9±25.6 48.3±9.7 CD40 −IL-4 19.4±8.8 14.8±5.2 14.9±9.7 34.0±5.1 +IL-4 286±145.5 44.0±19.4 52.7±22.8 41.0±19.8 CD180+CD40 −IL-4 32.5±12.6 97.0±26.2 28.0±10.4 65.5±26.6 +IL-4 299±163.2 63.5±27.4 49.3±14.6 55.5±26.4


Blood ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 1135-1135
Author(s):  
Renee C. Tschumper ◽  
Jaime R. Darce ◽  
Xiaosheng Wu ◽  
Stephen A. Mihalcik ◽  
Diane F. Jelinek

Abstract B cell-activating factor (BAFF) is known to regulate normal B cell development and homeostasis primarily by signaling through the high affinity receptor, BAFF-R, one of three BAFF binding receptors (BBRs). BAFF also binds two other receptors, BCMA and TACI with lesser affinity. We have recently shown that normal peripheral blood (PB) B cells express high levels of prebound soluble BAFF, which is lost upon B cell activation. Because of BAFF’s activity on normal B cells, we have been interested in the roles of BAFF and BBRs in B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). We and others have demonstrated that BAFF promotes primary CLL B cell survival and that serum BAFF levels are elevated in some patients. Although CLL B cells are known to express BBRs, a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of BBR levels and CLL B cell capacity to bind BAFF has not yet been done. We began this study by characterizing the level of soluble BAFF bound to freshly isolated CLL B cells, measured by both western blot analysis and flow cytometry. To assess receptor occupancy, cells were incubated with or without exogenous BAFF before assessing anti-BAFF reactivity and changes in median fluorescence intensity (ΔMFI; defined by dividing the MFI of the anti-BAFF antibody by the MFI of the isotype matched control antibody) were calculated. Normal B cells have higher detectable levels of bound BAFF with a ΔMFI ranging from 16 to 35 (mean=22.2). Upon addition of exogenous BAFF, the ΔMFI range increased to 27–96.6 (mean=49.1; n=8). Thus, despite evidence of prebound BAFF, clearly not all BBRs were occupied on normal PB B cells. By contrast, the levels of prebound BAFF on CLL B cells were significantly lower with a ΔMFI ranging from 1 to 13.1 (mean=2.7; n=36). Of note, 10/36 patients did not exhibit increased anti-BAFF reactivity upon incubation with exogenous BAFF (mean fold induction=0.8) whereas 26/36 patients displayed a mean fold induction of anti-BAFF reactivity of 3.5. These observations prompted us to next quantitate CLL B cell BBR expression. All patient CLL B cells expressed BAFF-R but at significantly lower levels than observed in normal B cells (p=0.0009). When CLL patients were categorized into IGHV mutated (M; n=22) and unmutated (UM; n=24), UM patients were observed to express higher levels of BAFF-R (ΔMFI =8.9) than M patients (ΔMFI =5.24). Regarding TACI, we previously demonstrated that normal memory B cells uniformly express TACI (ΔMFI =12.7; n=10) and there is a small population of activated naïve B cells that express TACI at lower levels (ΔMFI =8.3; n=10). In our CLL cohort, 14/22 M patients were TACI+ (ΔMFI =7.0) and 19/24 UM patients were TACI+ (ΔMFI =4.7). Finally, whereas normal PB B cells completely lack BCMA expression, 7/22 M and 4/22 UM patients expressed BCMA. Thus, using the BBR profile and analysis of expression levels relative to normal PB B cells, the following subgroups of B-CLL can be defined: BAFF-R+; BAFF-R/TACI+; BAFF-R/BCMA+; BAFF-R/TACI/BCMA+. It remains to be determined if these BBR profiles correlate with aspects of clinical disease. In addition, given the putative importance of BAFF in this disease, it is interesting to note that in general, CLL B cells display overall lower levels of prebound BAFF. Current studies are focused on determining whether this reflects CLL B cell activation status, increased competition for BAFF, and/or reduced levels of BBR expression.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 1361-1361
Author(s):  
Gerardo Ferrer ◽  
Kate E Hodgson ◽  
Victor Ciria ◽  
Gael Roue ◽  
Dolors Colomer ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 1361 The two TNF family proteins (B-cell activating factor [BAFF] and a proliferation-inducing ligand [APRIL]) and their three receptors (transmembrane activator and CAML interactor [TACI], B-cell maturation antigen [BCMA], and BAFF receptor [BAFF-R]) play a critical role in the process of differentiation, maturation and survival of normal B cells. Additionally, recent studies indicate that activation or inhibitory signals can modulate the sensitivity of normal B cells to BAFF and APRIL through the regulation of their receptors. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), BAFF and APRIL have been shown to increase survival of neoplastic B cells in vitro. We investigated whether stimulation of CLL cells through the B cell receptor (BCR) or CD40 ligation could regulate the expression of BAFF-R, TACI and BCMA and enhance BAFF and APRIL sensitivity. Purified B cells were obtained from 23 CLL patients and nine healthy controls. Receptor expression was measured by flow cytometry at baseline and at 48 hours after stimulation with F(ab’)2 antihuman IgM (10 μg/ml) and CD40L (500ng/ml) plus IL-4 (20ng/ml). Cell activation and viability, as assessed by labeling CD69 and Annexin V/TO-PRO-3, were evaluated at 48, and at 72 hours after co-stimulation with either soluble BAFF (100ng/ml) or APRIL (500ng/ml). Baseline analyses showed that BAFF-R was the most highly expressed receptor in CLL cells and normal B cells (Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) ratios, 213.5 and 185.8, respectively). TACI and BCMA were also expressed in all CLL cells and normal B cells (MFI ratios TACI: 2.5 and 1.9; BCMA: 14.8 and 6.6, respectively), but at a significantly lower level than BAFF-R (p<0.001). Furthermore, BCMA MFI ratio was significantly higher in CLL than in normal B cells (p=0.015). After 48h of culture, an increase of all three receptors was observed in normal B cells in response to either BCR stimulation or CD40 ligation. In contrast, in CLL cells BCR stimulation induced almost no variation in the receptors expression in all cases. This was accompanied by a failure of cell activation and a significant decreased viability of CLL cells (from 36% to 24% p=0.013). By contrast, CD40 ligation in CLL cells induced a significant upregulation of TACI expression (p=0.007) and a significant reduction of BCMA (p=0.007), which correlated with an increase of CLL cell activation and viability (p<0.001). BAFF-R levels did not change. The addition of exogenous soluble BAFF or APRIL showed increase in the viability of normal B cells at 72 hours independently of whether cells were unstimulated or stimulated through the BCR or by CD40 ligation. In CLL cells, however, the viability was significantly increased in CD40-stimulated cells whereas in either unstimulated or BCR-stimulated CLL cells, the addition of BAFF and APRIL had a modest effect on viability (Table). These findings indicate that stimulation of CLL cells through the BCR and CD40 modifies the sensitivity of CLL cells to respond to BAFF and APRIL which reflects the regulation of BCMA, TACI and BAFF-R. In contrast to normal B cells, CD40-ligation in CLL cells upregulated only TACI expression. The fact that the addition of CD40L plus IL-4 and BAFF increased viability in CLL cells while BAFF alone had almost no effect may be related to the ability of CD40 ligation to increase TACI expression. Although BCR stimulation failed to increase the expression of the receptors, co-stimulation by BAFF plus BCR increased viability in CLL cells. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 868-868
Author(s):  
George F. Widhopf ◽  
Bing Cui ◽  
Emanuela M. Ghia ◽  
Liguang Chen ◽  
Karen Messer ◽  
...  

Abstract ROR1 is an onco-embryonic antigen found on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B cells, but not on normal adult tissues. We generated B6 transgenic (Tg) mice with human ROR1 regulated by the murine Ig promoter/enhancer (ROR1 Tg). Such animals had B-cell-restricted expression of ROR1 and infrequently developed ROR1+/CD5+/B220low leukemia resembling human CLL at ≥15 months of age. The leukemia cells of these animals had phenotypic features in common with those of the leukemia that originates in B6 Eµ-TCL1-Tg (TCL1) mice, which develop a CLL-like disease at ≥ 9 months of age. However, in contrast to human CLL, the leukemia that develops in TCL1 Tg mice does not express ROR1, indicating that expression of this antigen is not necessary for leukemogenesis. However, in immune-precipitation and mass spectrometry studies we found that ROR1 could complex with TCL1 in human CLL cells. TCL1 is a proto-oncogene product that can serve as a co-activator of AKT. To investigate whether expression of ROR1 could affect the biology of the leukemia that develops in TCL1 Tg mice, we crossed our ROR1 Tg animals with TCL1-Tg mice. Progeny with both transgenes (ROR1xTCL1) developed CD5+/B220low B-cell leukemia at a significantly younger median age than did littermates with either transgene alone. ROR1xTCL1 leukemia B-cells had higher levels of pAKT than TCL1 leukemia-cells and expressed high-levels of human ROR1, which we also found could complex with TCL1. Exploratory subnetwork analyses of transcriptome microarray data on isolated leukemia cells using Ingenuity Pathway network tools revealed 51 subnetworks that were expressed at different levels between the two types of leukemia, 21 of which had z scores in excess of 0.8, and an associated functional annotation with a false-discovery-rate (FDR) of less than 0.05. This analysis implied that ROR1xTCL1 leukemia cells had higher expression of subnetworks implicated in embryonic and tumor-cell proliferation, but lower expression of subnetworks involved in cell-cell adhesion or cell-death, than did TCL1 leukemia-cells. ROR1xTCL1 leukemia-cells also had higher proportions of Ki-67-positive cells, lower proportions of cells undergoing spontaneous apoptosis, and produced more aggressive disease upon adoptive transfer than TCL1 leukemia-cells. We examined the activity of two different mouse anti-human ROR1 mAbs, D10 and 4A5, which bind to distinct non-overlapping epitopes of ROR1, as assessed in cross-blocking studies. Treatment of ROR1xTCL1 leukemia cells with D10 in vitro resulted in reduced expression of pAKT within 1 hour after addition of the antibody to the leukemia cells, an effect that was not apparent in control Ig or 4A5-treated cells. We treated ROR1 Tg mice engrafted with CD5+/B220low/ROR1+ leukemia cells with intravenous injections of D10, 4A5, or control mouse IgG (mIgG), at 10 mg/kg. At five weeks, mice given D10 in one representative experiment had significantly fewer CD5+/B220low leukemia cells (2.4 ± 1.0 x106, n=3) in the blood than mice that received mIgG (2.0 ± 0.3 x107, n=3, p=0.032), whereas the number of leukemia cells in the blood of mice given 4A5 (1.6 ± 0.3 x107, n=3, p>0.05) was not significantly different than that of mice treated with mIgG. Furthermore, mice that received CD5+/B220low/ROR1+ B cells and that were treated with D10 had significantly smaller spleens than mice that were treated with mIgG or 4A5. Although D10 was effective in inhibiting the engraftment of ROR1xTCL1 leukemia cells, administration of either anti-ROR1 mAb had no effect on the endogenous non-leukemia (CD5-/B220Hi/ROR1+) B cells or T cells, or on engraftment of leukemia cells from TCL1 Tg mice, which do not express ROR1. Our data demonstrate that ROR1 accelerates progression of TCL1 leukemia and may be a target for therapy of patients with CLL. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. 1881-1886
Author(s):  
S Fournier ◽  
M Rubio ◽  
G Delespesse ◽  
M Sarfati

CD23 gene is overexpressed and abnormally regulated in the most frequent adult leukemic disorder, B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B- CLL). Switch on and off in the upregulation of surface CD23 expression consistently occurs in the early stage of normal B-cell activation, suggesting a key role for CD23 in this process. We show here that, after ligation of mlg in the presence of interleukin-4, the increase of CD23 protein precedes B-cell DNA synthesis and mainly results from the strong induction of CD23 type-B isoform. Exposure of normal B cells to conventional or phosphorothioate-derivatized CD23 antisense oligonucleotides (predominantly type B) significantly augments B-cell proliferation induced by antigen receptor stimulation or direct contact with activated T cells. Unexpectedly, CD23 antisense, but not sense, oligonucleotides specifically enhance rather than suppress CD23 expression on B cells. Finally, a selective increase in CD23 type-B expression provokes the entry of resting (Go) CLL B cells into G1 and S phase of the cell cycle in the absence of any other stimulus, whereas it synergizes with tumor necrosis factor-alpha to increase the number of activated B cells. These results provide compelling evidence that CD23 represents an important molecule directly involved in the process of normal or leukemic B-cell activation and growth.


Blood ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-427
Author(s):  
AS Freedman ◽  
AW Boyd ◽  
FR Bieber ◽  
J Daley ◽  
K Rosen ◽  
...  

In an attempt to compare B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) with its normal cellular counterpart, the cell surface phenotype of 100 cases of B-CLL was determined by using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) directed against B cell-restricted and -associated antigens. The majority of B-CLL cells expressed Ia, B4 (CD19), B1 (CD20), B2 (CD21), surface immunoglobulin (sIg), and T1 (CD5) but lacked C3b (CD35) receptors. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of small unstimulated B cells expressed Ia, B4, B1, B2, sIg, and C3b receptors but lacked detectable T1. Small numbers of weakly sIg+ cells could be identified in peripheral blood and tonsil that coexpressed the B1 and T1 antigens. Approximately 16% of fetal splenocytes coexpressed B1, T1, weak sIg, B2, and Ia but lacked C3b receptors and therefore closely resembled most B-CLL cells. With the phenotypic differences between the majority of small unstimulated B cells and B-CLL cells, we examined normal in vitro activated B cells and B-CLL cells for the expression of B cell-restricted and -associated activation antigens. Of 20 cases examined, virtually all expressed B5, and approximately 50% of the cases expressed interleukin-2 receptors (IL-2R) and Blast-1. Normal B cells were activated with either anti-Ig or 12–0-tetradecanoylphorbol- beta-acetate (TPA) and then were examined for coexpression of B1, T1, and the B cell activation antigens B5 and IL-2R. Only cells activated with TPA coexpressed B1 and T1 as well as B5 and IL-2R. B cells activated with either anti-Ig or TPA proliferated in the presence of IL- 2, whereas B-CLL cells did not, although they all expressed the identical 60-kilodalton proteins by immunoprecipitation. These studies are consistent with the notion that B-CLL resembles several minor subpopulations of normal B cells including a population of B cells that are activated in vitro directly through the protein kinase C pathway.


Blood ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
AS Freedman ◽  
AW Boyd ◽  
FR Bieber ◽  
J Daley ◽  
K Rosen ◽  
...  

Abstract In an attempt to compare B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) with its normal cellular counterpart, the cell surface phenotype of 100 cases of B-CLL was determined by using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) directed against B cell-restricted and -associated antigens. The majority of B-CLL cells expressed Ia, B4 (CD19), B1 (CD20), B2 (CD21), surface immunoglobulin (sIg), and T1 (CD5) but lacked C3b (CD35) receptors. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of small unstimulated B cells expressed Ia, B4, B1, B2, sIg, and C3b receptors but lacked detectable T1. Small numbers of weakly sIg+ cells could be identified in peripheral blood and tonsil that coexpressed the B1 and T1 antigens. Approximately 16% of fetal splenocytes coexpressed B1, T1, weak sIg, B2, and Ia but lacked C3b receptors and therefore closely resembled most B-CLL cells. With the phenotypic differences between the majority of small unstimulated B cells and B-CLL cells, we examined normal in vitro activated B cells and B-CLL cells for the expression of B cell-restricted and -associated activation antigens. Of 20 cases examined, virtually all expressed B5, and approximately 50% of the cases expressed interleukin-2 receptors (IL-2R) and Blast-1. Normal B cells were activated with either anti-Ig or 12–0-tetradecanoylphorbol- beta-acetate (TPA) and then were examined for coexpression of B1, T1, and the B cell activation antigens B5 and IL-2R. Only cells activated with TPA coexpressed B1 and T1 as well as B5 and IL-2R. B cells activated with either anti-Ig or TPA proliferated in the presence of IL- 2, whereas B-CLL cells did not, although they all expressed the identical 60-kilodalton proteins by immunoprecipitation. These studies are consistent with the notion that B-CLL resembles several minor subpopulations of normal B cells including a population of B cells that are activated in vitro directly through the protein kinase C pathway.


Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 89 (8) ◽  
pp. 2901-2908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asimah Rafi ◽  
Mitzi Nagarkatti ◽  
Prakash S. Nagarkatti

Abstract CD44 is a widely distributed cell surface glycoprotein whose principal ligand has been identified as hyaluronic acid (HA), a major component of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Recent studies have demonstrated that activation through CD44 leads to induction of effector function in T cells and macrophages. In the current study, we investigated whether HA or monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) against CD44 would induce a proliferative response in mouse lymphocytes. Spleen cells from normal and nude, but not severe combined immunodeficient mice, exhibited strong proliferative responsiveness to stimulation with soluble HA or anti-CD44 MoAbs. Furthermore, purified B cells, but not T cells, were found to respond to HA. HA was unable to stimulate T cells even in the presence of antigen presenting cells (APC) and was unable to act as a costimulus in the presence of mitogenic or submitogenic concentrations of anti-CD3 MoAbs. In contrast, stimulation of B cells with HA in vitro, led to B-cell differentiation as measured by production of IgM antibodies in addition to increased expression of CD44 and decreased levels of CD45R. The fact that the B cells were responding directly to HA through its binding to CD44 and not to any contaminants or endotoxins was demonstrated by the fact that F(ab)2 fragments of anti-CD44 MoAbs or soluble CD44 fusion proteins could significantly inhibit the HA-induced proliferation of B cells. Also, HA-induced proliferation of B cells was not affected by the addition of polymixin B, and B cells from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-unresponsive C3H/HeJ strain responded strongly to stimulation with HA. Furthermore, HA, but not chondroitin-sulfate, another major component of the ECM, induced B-cell activation. It was also noted that injection of HA intraperitoneally, triggered splenic B cell proliferation in vivo. Together, the current study demonstrates that interaction between HA and CD44 can regulate murine B-cell effector functions and that such interactions may play a critical role during normal or autoimmune responsiveness of B cells.


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