International Immunology, Vol. 14, No. 1, 87-99,
January 2002
© 2002 Japanese Society for Immunology
The ontogeny of B cells in the thymus of normal, CD3
knockout (KO), RAG-2 KO and IL-7 transgenic mice
Laboratoire d'Immunochimie, U548 INSERM, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique-Grenoble, Département de Biologie Moléculaire et Structurale, Université Joseph Fourier, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France
Correspondence to: R. Ceredig, E-mail: ceredig{at}dsvsud.cea.fr
The ontogeny of thymic B cells was determined by three-color flow cytometry and the presence or absence of B cell progenitors confirmed by cell culture experiments. In the thymus of young normal mice, CD117+, B220low pro- and pre-B cells are present but disappear with age. B220low, CD5+, B-1 B cells are present in the thymus of older animals following the appearance of similar cells in the peritoneal cavity and blood. In CD3
gene-deleted mice, the phenotypic progression and number of thymic B cells remains unaltered, showing that blocking T cell development does not automatically result in an increase of thymic B lymphopoiesis. Pro-B cells in RAG-2 knockout mice are found in the fetal and neonatal blood, spleen and thymus, but with increasing age are only found in the bone marrow. B lymphopoiesis in adult IL-7 transgenic mice is dramatically altered with CD117+ pro- and pre-B cells present in spleen, lymph node and blood. In the thymus of adult IL-7 transgenic mice, the fraction of CD117+ thymic B cells is significantly increased. These results show that in the steady state, the phenotype of thymic B cells is critically dependent on both mouse age and the phenotype of circulating B cells.
Keywords: B cell development, B-1 cells, IL-7, T cell development
Transmitting editor: E. A. Kincade
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