Open AccessFrequencies of HIV‐reactive B cells in seropositive and seronegative individuals
Author(s) -
ZUBLER R. H.,
PERRIN L. H.,
DOUCET A.,
ZHANG X.,
HUANG Y.P.,
MIESCHER P. A.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
clinical & experimental immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 1365-2249
pISSN - 0009-9104
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2249.1992.tb06409.x
Subject(s) - peripheral blood mononuclear cell , pokeweed mitogen , antibody , seroconversion , immunology , biology , virology , b cell , immunoglobulin m , immunoglobulin g , in vitro , biochemistry
SUMMARY Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HIV‐infected seropositive (HIV + ) but not from normal, seronegative (HIV ‐ ) individuals are known to produce anti‐HIV antibodies in vitro , in the absence or presence of pokeweed mitogen (PWM). Previous studies showed that up to 20–40% of spontaneously immunoglobulin‐secreting B cells from HIV + individuals are HIV‐specific. To analyse the frequency of anti‐HIV B cells among “total” peripheral blood B cells in the present study, we used a limiting dilution assay in which EL‐4 thymoma cells induce clones of immunoglobulln‐secreting cells in activated as well as resting B cells. Anti‐HIV B cells were detected not only in 11/12 HIV + individuals (with frequencies from 1/910 lo 1/21 500 B cells cultured; one negative test was from a person undergoing seroconversion), but also in 4/9 HIV normal blood donors (1/16200 to 1/49000 B cells cultured) and in 3/6 newborns from HIV mothers (1/11 800 to l/26 600 B cells cultured). The mean frequency was nine times higher in the HIV individuals than in the normal donors. As in previous studies, only the cells from HIV individuals generated anti‐HIV antibodies in PBMC bulk cultures with or without PWM. The relative proportion of specific anti‐HIV antibody total immunoglobulin in PBMC bulk cultures was 800 times higher by the mean than in EL‐4 B cell cultures from HIV individuals (whereby the total immunoglobulin secretion for equal numbers of B cells cultured was 500 times lower for PBMC). These different results obtained with different assays suggest that in seropositives most anti‐HIV B cells belong to an activated B compartment which is quite small, even in a disease with B cell hyperactivity. Therefore, the specific B cells are strongly diluted among the EL‐4 cell‐responsive, total B cells. On the other hand, the EL‐4 assay can detect HIV‐reactive B cells in the B ceil repertoire of normal, non‐infected individuals.