Differentiation, Dedifferentiation, and Redifferentiation of B-lineage Lymphocytes: Roles of the Surrogate Light Chain and the Pax5 Gene
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Development of B lymphocytes from progenitor andprecursor cells in bone marrow is ordered by stepwise rearrangements of the V, D, and J segments of the immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy (H)- and light (L)-chain geneloci. The cells in which these ordered rearrangements occur can be distinguished by differential expression of specific genes with functions in this developmental pathway,by differential growth properties in vitro, and by differential properties to populate B-lymphocyte precursor andmature cell compartments in recipient mice upon transplantation (for review, see Melchers and Rolink 1999). Bcell development from early progenitors and precursorsto mature, surface Ig-expressing (sIg+) B cells can be induced and followed in vitro (Rolink et al. 1996), as wellas in vivo after transplantation into immunodeficient severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) or RAG–/–mice. In vivo, the transplantation of pro-B or pre-B-I cellsleads to a long-term population of some of the mature Bcell compartments (Rolink et al. 1991, 1994b; Hardy etal. 1992). Neither the thymus nor the bone marrow of theimmunodeficient hosts is populated, nor are mature Tcells or myeloid cells detectable. Hence, the pre-B-I cellsof wild-type mice do not home back into the bone marrowand appear committed, allowing only the establishmentof long-lived peripheral, mature B-cell compartments...
