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Published on: June 24, 2020
Regulatory roles for cytokine-producing B cells in infection and autoimmune disease
Frances E Lund1, Beth A Garvy, Troy D Randall
1Trudeau Institute, Saranac Lake, NY 12983, USA. flund@trudeauinstitute.org
Abstract:
Recent experiments have revealed that B cells can regulate the course of immune responses to pathogens and autoantigens by antibody-independent mechanisms. One antibody-independent function of B cells is to produce cytokines. In this review we describe the identification of IL-10-producing 'regulatory' B cells as well as IFNgamma-producing 'effector' Bel cells and IL-4-producing 'effector' Be2 cells. We discuss the roles of antigen, pathogen-derived molecules and T cell and dendritic cell-derived factors in regulating the differentiation of mature B cells into cytokine-producing effector B cells. We also review the recent experiments showing that B cell-derived cytokines play pathologic as well as protective roles in immune responses to autoantigens, and demonstrate that cytokine-producing B cells play unexpectedly complex and potentially opposing roles in autoimmune disease.
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