International Immunology, Vol. 14, No. 11, pp. 1313-1323,
November 2002
© 2002 Japanese Society for Immunology
Aging and developmental transitions in the B cell lineage
Departments of 1 Microbiology and Immunology, 2 Anesthesiology, and 3 Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, and 4 Program for Immunology and Aging, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL 60153, USA
Correspondence to: P. Witte, Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Program for Immunology and Aging, Loyola University Medical Center, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA. E-mail: pwitte{at}lumc.edu
Transmitting editor: C. J. Paige
One explanation for the deterioration of the humoral immune response in elderly individuals is that B lymphopoiesis declines with increasing age. Recent studies report a dramatic decline in pre-B cell numbers in old mice. Surprisingly, the number of mature B cells does not decline with age. To determine if new B cells are made in aged animals despite the drop in pre-B cells, we used 5'-bromo-2-deoxyuridine labeling to determine the production rate of B cells in the bone marrow and spleen of young and old mice. Because of the great variability in the number of early B lineage cells in old mice, we acquired data on >60 young and 50 old mice throughout these experiments. The transitional and mature B cell compartments in the spleen have slower labeling kinetics in old mice as compared to young. By the end of 4 weeks of labeling, an average of only 15% of the mature B cell compartment consists of newly made cells compared to 30% in young mice. However, in contrast to an earlier report, our results indicate that there is no statistical difference in the rate of production of new immature B cells in the marrow of young and old animals. In total, our results confirm previous work showing that mature B cells in old mice have a slower turnover, but more importantly suggest that the defect in mature B cell turnover is not due to a decline in B lymphopoiesis, but rather an inability of the newly made cells to replenish the peripheral compartments.
Keywords: 5'-bromo-2-deoxyuridine, aging, B lymphopoiesis, cellular differentiation, flow cytometry
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