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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Dec 14.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Immunol. 2009 May 15;30(6):277–285. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2009.03.008

Table 1.

Transcription factors that regulate B cell differentiation are associated with B cell malignacies.

Transcription factor Expression in mature B cells subsets* Role in terminal B cell differentiation* Associated B cell malignancies
BCL6 Specifically expressed in GC B cells GC formation and maintenance / GC B cell proliferation during genotoxic stress / Regulation of PC differentiation / Role in memory B cell formation unresolved [39,60] GCB-DLBCL [99]
MTA3 Specifically expressed in GC B cells Regulation of PC differentiation Unknown
PAX-5 All, except PCs Regulation of PC differentiation LPL [100]
MiTF Naive B cells Regulation of PC differentiation Unknown
Spi-B All, except PCs Regulation of PC differentiation [42] ABC-DLBCL [65,66]
Ets-1 All, except PCs Regulation of PC differentiation. Blocks BLIMP1 activity [44] Unknown
IRF-8 Specifically expressed in GC B cells, absent in PCs Regulates AID and BCL6 [73] Unknown
OBF-1 All Represses early differentiation but critical for the completion of PC development [57] Unknown
BLIMP1 High in PCs Crucial for PC formation and Ab secretion ABC-DLBCL [101,102]
XBP-1 High in PCs Required for Ab secretion Unknown
IRF-4 Expressed in some centrocytes, high in PCs Required for PC formation MM [74]
Active STAT3 High in GC B cells Activated by the Tfh cytokine IL-21. Induces BLIMP1 expression and PC formation [33,40] ABC-DLBCL [41,67], MM [103], cHL [71,104], MCL [105]
Active STAT5 High in CD25+ centrocytes Differentiation into memory B cells [39] PMBL [106], cHL [70]
*

For more details and additional primary references see other reviews [29,30,55]. Abbreviations: cHL: classical Hodgkin lymphoma, DLBCL: Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (GCB: Germinal center B-cell-like, ABC: Activated B-cell-like), LPL: lymphoplasmacytoid lymphoma, MM: Multiple myeloma, MCL: Mantel-cell lymphoma, PMBL: Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma.

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