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ABCB1 transporter discriminates human resting naive B cells from cycling transitional and memory B cells

Stefan Wirths1, Antonio Lanzavecchia

  • 1Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona, Switzerland. stefan.wirths@irb.unisi.ch

European Journal of Immunology
|November 1, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Researchers identified a new marker, ATP-binding cassette (ABC)B1 transporter, to distinguish naive B cells from memory and transitional B cells. This discovery reveals distinct in vivo turnover rates among human B cell subsets.

Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Accurate identification of B cell subsets is crucial for understanding immune responses in health and disease.
  • Current methods for distinguishing human memory B cells rely on CD27 expression, but this marker does not fully resolve all subsets.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify a novel marker for precise discrimination of human naive B cells from memory and transitional B cells.
  • To investigate the in vivo turnover rates of distinct human B cell subsets.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized ATP-binding cassette (ABC)B1 transporter expression as a potential marker for B cell subset identification.
  • Combined ABCB1 detection with Ki67 staining to assess cell proliferation and in vivo turnover.
  • Analyzed B cell subsets in human cord blood and adult peripheral blood.

Main Results:

  • The ATP-binding cassette (ABC)B1 transporter is exclusively expressed on mature naive B cells (CD27-).
  • ABCB1 is absent in CD27+ memory B cells and a subset of CD27- cells including switch memory and transitional B cells.
  • Mature naive B cells are quiescent, while transitional and memory B cells exhibit high in vivo turnover.

Conclusions:

  • ABCB1 transporter activity provides a precise method to discriminate naive B cells from transitional and memory B cells.
  • This improved discrimination method highlights differential in vivo proliferation dynamics among human B cell populations.

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