| First Author | Rubtsov AV | Year | 2011 |
| Journal | Blood | Volume | 118 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 1305-15 |
| PubMed ID | 21543762 | Mgi Jnum | J:176948 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5293218 | Doi | 10.1182/blood-2011-01-331462 |
| Citation | Rubtsov AV, et al. (2011) Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)-driven accumulation of a novel CD11c B-cell population is important for the development of autoimmunity. Blood 118(5):1305-15 |
| abstractText | Females are more susceptible than males to many autoimmune diseases. The processes causing this phenomenon are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that aged female mice acquire a previously uncharacterized population of B cells that we call age-associated B cells (ABCs) and that these cells express integrin alpha(X) chain (CD11c). This unexpected population also appears in young lupus-prone mice. On stimulation, CD11c(+) B cells, both from autoimmune-prone and healthy strains of mice, secrete autoantibodies, and depletion of these cells in vivo leads to reduction of autoreactive antibodies, suggesting that the cells might have a direct role in the development of autoimmunity. We have explored factors that contribute to appearance of ABCs and demonstrated that signaling through Toll-like receptor 7 is crucial for development of this B cell population. We were able to detect a similar population of B cells in the peripheral blood of some elderly women with autoimmune disease, suggesting that there may be parallels between the creation of ABC-like cells between mice and humans. |
