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Insight into lymphoid development by gene expression profiling of avian B cells

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Abstract

The avian immune system provides an excellent model to track B-cell development from prebursal stem cells throughout B-cell differentiation and maturation. Bursal B cells are uniquely positioned at the crossroads of B-cell development, having properties of both stem cells and of mature B cells, as demonstrated by their ability to reconstruct the bursal B-cell compartment and to express and diversify the B-cell receptor at their cell surface. To understand avian B-cell development better, we determined the gene expression profile of different B-cell stages using a bursal expressed sequence tag array. The expression profile of bursal B cells reveals the presence of factors associated with B-cell signaling and defines novel B-cell-specific genes. Genes associated with proliferation, apoptosis, DNA repair and recombination are abundantly expressed. The expression profile of the DT40 cell line is most similar to bursal B cells rather than to other stages of B-cell development, confirming the suitability of DT40 for studies of B-cell physiology. Interestingly, prebursal stem cells express genes involved in B-cell receptor signaling, although they express only low levels of immunoglobulin genes. This suggests that B-cell receptor-mediated selection is present before bursal colonization. The gene expression signatures of germinal centers and cells of the Harderian gland indicate that evolutionarily conserved genetic programs regulate B-cell activation and terminal differentiation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Prof. H. Arvilommi and Drs. H. Salminen, J. Liippo, K.-P. Nera, M. Möttönen, J. Heikkinen and E. Veistinen for critically reading the manuscript. Ms. A. Karvonen, M. Kuusimurto and J. Matsson are acknowledged for their excellent technical assistance. This work was financially supported by the European Union (QLK3-CT-2000-00785), Tekes (the National Technology Agency), Turku Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Academy of Finland, special funds from the Research and Science Foundation of Farmos, the Finnish Cultural Foundation of Southwest Finland, the Finnish Medical Foundation, the Turku University Foundation, Emil and Blida Maunula Foundation, Emil Aaltonen foundation and the Paulo Foundation. Experiments using animals were done with the permission of the local authorities (Accredition No: 1071/00).

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  1. Jean-Marie Buerstedde

    Present address: GSF, Institute for Molecular Radiobiology, Ingolstädter Landstrasse 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Munich, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Microbiology, Turku Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Turku, Kiinamyllynkatu 13, 20520, Turku, Finland

    Kimmo Koskela, Pekka Kohonen, Pia Nieminen & Olli Lassila

  2. Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Martinistrasse 52, 20251, Hamburg, Germany

    Jean-Marie Buerstedde

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  1. Kimmo Koskela
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Correspondence to Kimmo Koskela.

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K. Koskela, P. Kohonen and P. Nieminen contributed equally to this work

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Koskela, K., Kohonen, P., Nieminen, P. et al. Insight into lymphoid development by gene expression profiling of avian B cells. Immunogenetics 55, 412–422 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-003-0592-7

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