Transcription factor T-bet regulates the maintenance and differentiation potential of lymph node and lung effector

Christopher A Risley1, Michael D Schultz1, S Rameeza Allie2

  • 1Department of Microbiology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.

Immunity
|June 21, 2025
PubMed

While human and mouse memory B cells (MBCs) can express the transcription factor T-bet, its role in regulating MBC function remains unclear. We characterized multiple transcriptionally distinct clusters of mature, somatically mutated nucleoprotein (NP)-specific MBCs in lymph nodes (LNs) and lungs of influenza-infected mice. Although none of the MBCs expressed the plasma cell (PC) lineage commitment factor Blimp1, one cluster was enriched for Tbx21+ cells. Similar to the previously described human T-bet+ effector MBC (eMBC) population, Tbx21+ mouse MBCs upregulated gene networks associated with effector metabolism, protein synthesis, and the unfolded protein response. Constitutive and inducible ablation of T-bet in murine B cells showed that T-bet expression by MBCs was required for persistence of LN and lung eMBCs with rapid in vitro and in vivo PC differentiation potential. Thus, T-bet marks NP+ eMBCs that are poised to differentiate, and it regulates maintenance of lung-resident MBCs and local PC responses following virus re-exposure.

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