Follicular dendritic cells inhibit human B-lymphocyte proliferation
AS Freedman, JM Munro, K Rhynhart, P Schow, J Daley, N Lee, J Svahn, L Eliseo and LM Nadler
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
In germinal centers, B lymphocytes are intimately associated with
follicular dendritic cells (FDCs). It has been hypothesized that FDCs are
involved in the regulation of B-cell growth and differentiation through
cell-cell interactions. In this study, highly enriched preparations of FDCs
were isolated by cell sorting using the FDC restricted monoclonal antibody
DRC-1. When irradiated FDCs were cultured with mitogen stimulated B cells,
B cell 3H-TdR uptake was inhibited by up to 80%. This inhibitory effect was
not seen when paraformaldehyde fixed FDCs were added to B-cell cultures,
suggesting that the FDCs needed to be metabolically active. Moreover,
supernatants from cultured FDCs were similarly able to inhibit B-cell
proliferation. These results demonstrate that FDCs may downregulate the
clonal expansion of B cells that occurs within lymphoid follicles as part
of the normal physiologic immune response. Potentially, the loss of the
inhibitory role of FDCs in vivo may be of importance in certain infectious
and neoplastic processes in which germinal centers are affected.
Volume 80,
Issue 5,
pp. 1284-1288,
09/01/1992
Copyright © 1992 by The American Society of Hematology
