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Lack of nuclear BMP‐2 causes reduced spleen size
Author(s) -
Olsen Daniel S,
Bailey K Tyson,
Nichols Brandt A,
Bridgewater Laura C
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.601.12
Subject(s) - spleen , immune system , biology , mutant , white pulp , red pulp , splenocyte , wild type , intracellular , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , gene
Nuclear bone morphogenetic protein 2 (nBMP2) is a nuclear variant of the secreted growth factor BMP‐2. Experiments in nBmp2NLS tm mutant mice, which lack nBMP2 in the nucleus, revealed that nBMP2 affects intracellular calcium transport in skeletal muscle and hippocampal neurons. The objective of this study was to determine whether nBMP2 affects the immune system, since activation of lymphocytes and other immune cells depends on intracellular calcium transport. We found that spleens in nBmp2NLS tm mutant mice were 28% smaller than in wild type mice. When mutants and wild types were challenged with an intravenous infection of 10 7 CFU of S. aureus , wild type mouse spleens increased in mass by an average of 63%, while mutant mouse spleens increased by 76% by the third day after infection. Liver and kidney mass were not different between mutant and wild type, either before or after infection. The white pulp of the spleen contains many immune cells, particularly B and T lymphocytes and reduced spleen size in the nBmp2NLS tm mutant mice could be caused by a reduced number of lymphocytes migrating to the spleen. Samples of blood, liver, spleen, kidney and lymph nodes cultured three days after infection showed no difference in post infection bacterial load between mutant and wild type, suggesting that the innate immune response is functional in nBmp2NLS tm mice. Supported by NIH # AR048839