| First Author | Lucas D | Year | 2005 |
| Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 1601-11 |
| PubMed ID | 15789338 | Mgi Jnum | J:97782 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3576407 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.200526015 |
| Citation | Lucas D, et al. (2005) Polymerase mu is up-regulated during the T cell-dependent immune response and its deficiency alters developmental dynamics of spleen centroblasts. Eur J Immunol 35(5):1601-11 |
| abstractText | Mammalian DNA polymerase mu (Polmu), preferentially expressed in secondary lymphoid organs, is shown here to be up-regulated in germinal centers after immunization. Alternative splicing appears to be part of Polmu regulation during an immune response. We generated Polmu-deficient mice that are viable and show no anatomical malformation or serious alteration in lymphoid populations, with the exception of an underrepresentation of the B cell compartment. Young and aged homozygous Polmu(-/-) mice generated similar immune responses after immunization with the hapten (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl (NP) coupled to chicken gammaglobulin (CGG), compared with their wild-type littermates. Nonetheless, the kinetics of development of the centroblast population showed significant differences. Hypermutation analysis of the rearranged heavy chain intron region in centroblasts isolated from NP-CGG-immunized Polmu(-/-) mice showed a similar quantitative and qualitative somatic mutation spectrum, but a lower representation of heavily mutated clones. These results suggest that although it is not a critical partner, Polmu modulates the in vivo somatic hypermutation process. |
