Comparative In Vitro Immune Stimulation Analysis of Primary Human B Cells and B Cell Lines. (26th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Van Belle, Kristien; Herman, Jean; Boon, Louis; Waer, Mark; Sprangers, Ben; Louat, Thierry
• Other Names: Tabarkiewicz Jacek Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of immunology research. Volume 2016(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-12-26
• Subjects: Immunology -- Periodicals; Immunology -- Research -- Periodicals; 616.07905
• DOI: 10.1155/2016/5281823
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2314-8861

Abstract

Abstract : B cell specific immunomodulatory drugs still remain an unmet medical need. Utilisation of validated simplified in vitro models would allow readily obtaining new insights in the complexity of B cell regulation. For this purpose we investigated which human B lymphocyte stimulation assays may be ideally suited to investigate new B lymphocyte immunosuppressants. Primary polyclonal human B cells underwent in vitro stimulation and their proliferation, production of immunoglobulins (Igs) and of cytokines, and expression of cell surface molecules were analysed using various stimuli. ODN2006, a toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, was the most potent general B cell stimulus. Subsequently, we investigated on which human B cell lines ODN2006 evoked the broadest immunostimulatory effects. The Namalwa cell line proved to be the most responsive upon TLR9 stimulation and hence may serve as a relevant, homogeneous, and stable B cell model in an in vitro phenotypic assay for the discovery of new targets and inhibitors of the B cell activation processes. As for the read-out for such screening assay, it is proposed that the expression of activation and costimulatory surface markers reliably reflects B lymphocyte activation.