The ontogeny of B lymphocytes. V. Lipopolysaccharide-induced changes of IgD expression on murine B lymphocytes

Murine splenocytes contain two minor subpopulations of B cells, one inducible by lipopolysaccharide to convert within 2 h from IgD- to IgD+ and the other to change from IgD+ TO IgD-. These two subpopulations can be separated by density centrifugation. Their relative proportions show a marked age dependency: IgD- leads to IgD+ cells are more frequent in suckling mice, while IgD+ leads to IgD- inducible cells become predominant in mice older than 3 weeks. The age dependency observed in the relative proportions between the two cell types suggest that they are ontogenetically related as progenitor-successor. This hypothesis is corroborated by phenotype analysis of the two subsets, revealing IgD- leads to IgD+ cells as IgM+, Ia+, complement receptor- (CR-) and IgD+ leads to IgD- cells as IgM+, Ia+, CR+. Our data show that IgD and CR are expressed concomitantly during B cell differentiation. On further differentiation, induced by lipopolysaccharide, both markers are lost from the cell surface at different rates: IgD decreases significantly in a very short period (less than 2.5 h) while induction of a decline in CR requires longer culture periods (greater than 8 h). Th: loss of IgD may thus herald an early differentiation event toward antibody-producing cells.