International Immunology Advance Access originally published online on December 16, 2005
International Immunology 2006 18(1):163-172; doi:10.1093/intimm/dxh359
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Only VpreB1, but not VpreB2, is expressed at levels which allow normal development of B cells
1 Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signaling and Development, Babraham Institute, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge CB2 4AT, UK
2 Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50-70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
3 Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie, Schuhmannstrasse 21, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Correspondence to: I.-L. Mårtensson; E-mail: lill.martensson{at}bbsrc.ac.uk
The surrogate light chain (SLC) consists of the polypeptides 
5 and, in the mouse, either VpreB1 or VpreB2. SLC associates with BILL-Cadherin and other glycoproteins to form the pro-B cell receptor (pro-BCR) at the pre-BI cell stage, and with the immunoglobulin µ heavy chain to form the pre-BCR at the pre-BII cell stage. The function of the pro-BCR, if any, is unknown, whereas the pre-BCR is crucial for proliferative expansion of pre-BII cells. To shed light on the functional properties of VpreB1 and VpreB2 in vivo, mice with either one or two VpreB1, or one or two VpreB2, alleles have been investigated. We show that B cell development in mice with two VpreB1 alleles is indistinguishable from that of normal mice. In contrast, mice with two VpreB2 alleles show an 
1.6-fold increase in pre-BI and a 35% decrease in pre-BII cell numbers, while mice with only one VpreB2 allele show a reduction in B cell development manifested in a 2-fold enrichment in pre-BI cells and a 75% reduction in pre-BII cells. However, such a gene dosage effect is not observed for VpreB1. Our results suggest that the difference between VpreB1- and VpreB2-deficient mice is due to lower VpreB2 protein expression, thus limiting the formation of pre-BCRs and thereby the number of large, cycling pre-BII cells.
Keywords: B cell development, pre-BCR, surrogate light chain, VpreB, 5
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