Expression of CD23 antigen and its regulation by IL-4 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

In our previous studies, we reported that the sera from CLL patients contain 3 to 500 times more IgE-BFs (or soluble CD23) than the sera from normal individuals (Sarfati M., Bron D., Lagneaux L., Fonteyn C., Frost H. & Delespesse G. (1988) Elevation of IgE-binding factors in serum of patients with B cell-derived chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood 71, 94). In the present study, we have investigated some of the mechanisms accounting for this observation. We report that the density of CD23 expression per cell is significantly higher on the B-CLLs than on the control cells, although the proportion of CD23+ B cells is comparable in both groups (70-90% of CD20+ cells express CD23 antigen). We have next examined the influence of IL-4 on the CD23 expression, the proliferation and the differentiation of B-CLLs. The results indicate that IL-4 (i) increases CD23 expression and IgE-BFs production by normal and CLL B cells; (ii) does not promote B-CLLs proliferation or differentiation, neither by itself nor in costimulation with either anti-IgM or PMA; (iii) significantly potentiates PMA-induced IgM and IgE-BFs production by B-CLLs. It is further shown that anti-CD23 Mab does not interfere with B-CLLs proliferation or differentiation. It is concluded that: (i) the excessive production of IgE-BFs in CLL patients results not only from the enlarged pool of CD23+ B cells but also from an over-expression of CD23 on B-CLLs; (ii) CD23 is not constitutively expressed on B-CLLS and it is upregulated by IL-4; and (iii) by contrast to normal B cells, CD23 on B-CLLs may not be associated with the functional LMW-BCGF receptor.