Premium
Peritoneal B Cells Differentiate without Proliferation into Autoantibody Secretors under the Influence of Factors Released by Other Cells
Author(s) -
COX K. O.,
DAENKE S.,
SAMCEWICZ B.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1984.tb01035.x
Subject(s) - autoantibody , in vitro , biology , antigen , lipopolysaccharide , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , peritoneal cavity , cell culture , cell , antibody , biochemistry , anatomy , genetics
After 3–5 days of in vitro culture, peritoneal cells from untreated Oil mice produce autoantibodies specific for autoantigens in the membranes of mouse crythrocytes. The autoantigens are exposed in vitro by treating mouse erythrocytes with the proteolytic enzyme bromclain. Limiting‐dilution cell culture techniques were used to determine the frequency of the autoreactive B cells. Cells were cultured in Terasaki trays at 10–200 cells/well. Autoantibody production was assayed with an in situ plaque‐forming cell (RFC) assay. On average, one autoantibody precursor cell was detected for every 150–200 peritoneal cells cultured. This precursor frequency was increased to 1 in 50 by the addition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and dextran sulphate (DS) to the culture medium The addition of a culture supernatant from an EL‐4 lmphoma subline also induced a high proportion of the peritoneal cells to secrete autoantibodies However, it was not possible to determine thefrequency of PFC accurately because at limning numbers of peritoneal cells the effects of EL4 affected more than one limiting variable. Significant cell division was observed in cultures to which LPS/DS had been added, in contrast to untreated cultures to which EL4 supernatant was added. The results show that high numbers of autoreactive B cells committed to self antigens are present in the peritoneal cavity and that these cells under the influence of appropriate cytokines can differentiate in vitro, even without proliferation, into autoantibody secretors. The cell type or types releasing the cytokines remain to be identified.