Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rubtsov, Anatoly V.
• Rubtsova, Kira
• Fischer, Aryeh
• Meehan, Richard T.
• Gillis, Joann Z.
• Kappler, John W.
• Marrack, Philippa

Titel

Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)–driven accumulation of a novel CD11c+ B-cell population is important for the development of autoimmunity

Ist Teil von

• Blood, 2011-08, Vol.118 (5), p.1305-1315

Ort / Verlag

Washington, DC: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Females are more susceptible than males to many autoimmune diseases. The processes causing this phenomenon are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that aged female mice acquire a previously uncharacterized population of B cells that we call age-associated B cells (ABCs) and that these cells express integrin αX chain (CD11c). This unexpected population also appears in young lupus-prone mice. On stimulation, CD11c+ B cells, both from autoimmune-prone and healthy strains of mice, secrete autoantibodies, and depletion of these cells in vivo leads to reduction of autoreactive antibodies, suggesting that the cells might have a direct role in the development of autoimmunity. We have explored factors that contribute to appearance of ABCs and demonstrated that signaling through Toll-like receptor 7 is crucial for development of this B cell population. We were able to detect a similar population of B cells in the peripheral blood of some elderly women with autoimmune disease, suggesting that there may be parallels between the creation of ABC-like cells between mice and humans.