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Induction and Assessment of Class Switch Recombination in Purified Murine B Cells
09:49

Induction and Assessment of Class Switch Recombination in Purified Murine B Cells

Published on: August 13, 2010

Cutting edge: critical role of inducible costimulator in germinal center reactions

C Dong1, U A Temann, R A Flavell

  • 1Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New Haven, CT 06514, USA. chendong@u.washington.edu

Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
|March 10, 2001
PubMed

Inducible costimulator (ICOS) is a new member of the CD28/CTLA-4 family that is expressed on activated and germinal center (GC) T cells. Recently, we reported that ICOS-deficient mice exhibited profound defects in T cell activation and effector function. Ab responses in a T-dependent primary reaction and in a murine asthma model were also diminished. In the current study, we investigate the mechanism by which ICOS regulates humoral immunity and examine B cell GC reactions in the absence of ICOS. We found that ICOS(-/-) mice, when immunized with SRBC, had smaller GCs. Furthermore, IgG1 class switching in the GCs was impaired. Remarkably, GC formation in response to a secondary recall challenge was completely absent in ICOS knockout mice. These data establish a critical role of ICOS in regulation of humoral immunity.

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