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. 1973 Jul;25(1):33–45.

Studies on the differentiation of B lymphocytes in the mouse

G J V Nossal, Beverley L Pike
PMCID: PMC1422825  PMID: 4541832

Abstract

The capacity of CBA mouse B lymphocytes to bind polyvalent rabbit anti-mouse immunoglobulin antibody, even when this reagent is present in low concentration, was used as an index of a lymphocyte's B cell status. Various mouse tissues were held for 30 minutes at 0° with 0.2 μ/ml of 125I-labelled anti-Ig, and smear preparations of washed cells were examined, following radioautography, for their content of B cells. The survey covered two areas of B cell differentiation, namely the spontaneous emergence of B cells in the mouse foetus, and the development of B cells in lethally irradiated mice that had received early foetal liver as a source of haematogenous stem cells.

The foetal survey suggested a multifocal origin of B cells, commencing 3 days before birth, in all major sites of erythromyelopoiesis, namely liver, spleen and bone marrow. Lymph nodes showed B cells later than did these organs, and thymus contained virtually no B cells at any stage. A rapid influx of B cells into lymph nodes took place shortly after birth. The CBA mouse is born with somewhat over 105 B lymphocytes in toto, of which the majority are in liver, spleen and blood.

The irradiation-recovery study showed: (1) that B cells are, statistically, more sensitive to high dose irradiation than T cells; (2) that a B cell-free stem cell source can repopulate the B cell pool; (3) that repopulation is surprisingly slow; and (4) that numerical and functional recovery of B cells parallel each other to a reasonable degree.

The significance of the results is discussed from the viewpoints of lymphocyte differentiation and immunological tolerance.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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