Vitamin A and immune function: Retinoic acid modulates population dynamics in antigen receptor and CD38-stimulated splenic B cells

Qiuyan Chen, A. Catharine Ross

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vitamin A and its active metabolite, all-trans retinoic acid (RA), regulate the antibody response in vivo, although the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We have investigated the regulation by RA of B cell population dynamics and Ig gene expression in purified splenic mouse B cells stimulated through the B cell antigen receptor (BCR) and/or CD38, a BCR coreceptor. After ligation of the BCR and/or CD38, B cells became more heterogeneous in size. RA substantially restrained this change, concomitant with inhibition of cell proliferation. To examine B cell heterogeneity more closely, we categorized stimulated B cells by size (forward angle light scatter) and determined cell division dynamics, germ-line Ig heavy chain gene transcription and surface IgG1 (slgG1) expression. Flow cytometric analysis of carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester-labeled B cells costained for slgG1 showed that the more proliferative groups of B cells were smaller, whereas cells expressing more slgG1 were larger. RA enriched the latter population, whereas cell division frequency in general and the number of smaller B cells that had undergone division cycles were reduced. Although RA significantly inhibited Ig germ-line transcript levels in the total B cell population, CD19-IgG1 + B cells, which represent a more differentiated phenotype, were enriched. Furthermore, pax-5 mRNA was decreased and activation-induced cytidine deaminase mRNA was increased in RA-treated stimulated B cells. Thus, RA regulated factors known to be required for Ig class switch recombination and modulated the population dynamics of ligation-stimulated B cells, while promoting the progression of a fraction of B cells into differentiated slgG-expressing cells.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)14142-14149
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume102
Issue number40
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 4 2005

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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