Fig. 3.

Excessive CD11c⁺Tbet⁺ ABCs precede aberrant T-cell activation. (A) Volcano plot showing genes expressed differentially (change in expression of over 2-fold) in B-lineage cells (sorted as B220⁺ and B220^lowCD138^hi) from Ship^fl/fl mice relative to those from Ship^ΔB mice. (B–D) Frequency of CD11c⁺Tbet⁺ABCs among B220⁺CD19⁺CD43⁻CD93⁻CD23⁻CD21⁻ cells (B), B220⁺CD19⁺ cells (C), and absolute cell number of CD11c⁺Tbet⁺ABC per spleen (D) of Ship^fl/fl and Ship^ΔB mice (3 to ∼4 mo old). (E–G) Representative FACS profile (E) and bar graph (F and G) showing the percentage of CD44⁺CD62L⁻ effector/memory cells (T_EM) among CD4⁺ (E and F) and CD8⁺ (E and G) T cells in the spleen of 1-mo-old Ship^fl/fl and Ship^ΔB mice. (H) Anti-dsDNA IgG autoantibody levels in the serum of Ship^fl/fl and Ship^ΔB mice at the age of 1 or 3 mo. (I and J) Percentage of CD11c⁺ ABCs among B cells in the spleen (I) or mesenteric lymph node (mLN) (J) of 1-mo-old Ship^fl/fl and Ship^ΔB mice. Each symbol in the bar graphs represents an individual mouse. Bars represent means ± SD. ns, not significant; *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001; ****P ≤ 0.0001 (unpaired 2-tailed t test [C, D, F, G, I, and J], 1-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test [H]). A representative of 3 independent experiments is shown (B–J).