The study is about origin of B1vs.B2 cells. B1 cells are innate-like B cell lineage that reside in peritoneal & pleural cavities and express restricted BCRs specific for conserved molecules such as phosphatidylcholine. B2 cells are conventional B cells expressing diverse of BCR.— David Usharauli (@3DiMMUNE) February 16, 2019
1. This is a model system the authors set up to do it. Normally, #transgenic B cells express either VH12 (B1) or B1-8 (B2) only. However, after cre #recombination, VH12 is #replaced with B1-8 and vice versa. So, B1 should start expressing B2 receptor and B2 –> B1 receptor. pic.twitter.com/L4J1nBJENh— David Usharauli (@3DiMMUNE) February 16, 2019
3. The same outcome was observed in an in #vivo setting too. Conventional B2 cells could produce #functioning B1 cells after #BCR swap but not vice versa. pic.twitter.com/cXHJLWaHsv— David Usharauli (@3DiMMUNE) February 16, 2019
#Summary: conventional B cells (a.k.a B2 cells) still harbor #potential for trans-differentiate into B1 cells while B1 cells lack such quality.Why is that? B1 produce so called natural “housekeeping” antibodies specific for some self antigens exposed during cell #senescence.
— David Usharauli (@3DiMMUNE) February 16, 2019
B2 cells, on the other hand, if happened to express B1-like receptor it could end up in B1 pool. Then it would acquire B1 functioning and develop into regulatory B cell category joining other B1 cells. In other word, To be a B1 cells is to be a good B cells by definition 😎— David Usharauli (@3DiMMUNE) February 16, 2019