Germinal Center B Cells and Mixed Leukocyte Reactions

The present study was undertaken to determine if germinal center (GC) B cells are sufficiently activated to stimulate mixed leukocyte reactions (MLR). Percoll density fractionation and a panning technique with peanut agglutinin (PNA) were used to isolate GC B cells from the lymph nodes of immune mice. The GC B cells were treated with mitomycin C or irradiation and used to stimulate allogeneic or syngeneic splenic T cells in the MLR. Controls included high‐density (HD) B cells prepared from spleens of the same mice and HD B cells activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and dextran sulfate. GC B cells bound high amounts of PNA (i.e., PNA hi ). Similarly, the LPS‐dextran sulfate‐activated B cells were PNA hl . Treatment with neuraminidase rendered the PNA HD B cells PNA hl . GC B cells and the LPS‐dextran sulfate‐activated HD B cells stimulated a potent MLR, while the untreated HD B cells did not. However, following neuraminidase treatment, the resulting PNA hl HD B cell population was able to induce an MLR. The PNA marker appeared to be an indicator of stimulatory activity, but incubating the cells with PNA to bind the cell surface ligand did not interfere with the MLR. GC B cells were also capable of stimulating a syngeneic MLR in most experiments although this was not consistently obtained. It appears that germinal centers represent a unique in vivo microenvironment that provides the necessary signals for B cells to become highly effective antigen‐presenting cells.