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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Flow Cytometric Characterization of Murine B Cell Development
Published on: January 22, 2021
The pre-B cell receptor and its function during B cell development
Min Zhang1, Gopesh Srivastava, Liwei Lu
1Department of Pathology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract:
The process of B cell development in the bone marrow occurs by the stepwise rearrangements of the V, D, and J segments of the Ig H and L chain gene loci. During early B cell genesis, productive Ig H chain gene rearrangement leads to assembly of the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR), which acts as an important checkpoint at the pro-B/preB transitional stage. The pre-BCR, transiently expressed by developing precursor B cells, comprises the Ig muH chain, surrogate light (SL) chains VpreB and lambda5, as well as the signal-transducing heterodimer Ig alpha/Ig beta. Signaling through the pre-BCR regulates allelic exclusion at the Ig H locus, stimulates cell proliferation, and induces differentiation to small post-mitotic pre-B cells that further undergo the rearrangement of the Ig L chain genes. Recent advances in elucidating the key roles of pre-BCR in B cell development have provided a better understanding of normal B lymphopoiesis and its dysregulated state leading to B cell neoplasia.
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