| First Author | Gaspal FM | Year | 2006 |
| Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 7 | Pages | 1665-73 |
| PubMed ID | 16783845 | Mgi Jnum | J:115798 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3692213 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.200535339 |
| Citation | Gaspal FM, et al. (2006) The generation of thymus-independent germinal centers depends on CD40 but not on CD154, the T cell-derived CD40-ligand. Eur J Immunol 36(7):1665-73 |
| abstractText | In this report, we show that the formation of germinal center (GC)-like structures to thymus-independent type 2 antigens in mice depends on intact signals through CD40, but does not depend on T cell-derived CD40-ligand (CD154). In addition, we show that follicular dendritic cells (FDC) are also critical to thymus-independent GC formation, as their depletion by blockade of lymphotoxin-beta receptor signals abrogated GC development unless the responding B cells bound antigen with high affinity. Further evidence that immune complexes drove this CD40-dependent B cell proliferation was provided by the observation that an antibody that detects immune complexes containing complement component 4 on FDC also inhibited thymus-independent GC formation when injected in vivo at the time of immunization. Finally, we show that thymus-independent B cell proliferation was associated with class switching to IgG3, as IgG3(+) antigen-specific switched B cells could be visualized directly in GC, suggesting that immune complexes can provide the signals for class switching within GC in the absence of CD154. |
