SEARCH:   Advanced

Blood, 1 September 2007, Vol. 110, No. 5, pp. 1519-1529. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on March 28, 2007; DOI 10.1182/blood-2006-10-053793. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: blood-2006-10-053793v1 110/5/1519    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Reichardt, P. Articles by Gunzer, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Reichardt, P. Articles by Gunzer, M. Related Collections Immunobiology Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  IMMUNOBIOLOGY Naive B cells generate regulatory T cells in the presence of a mature immunologic synapse Peter Reichardt1, Bastian Dornbach1, Song Rong2, Stefan Beissert3, Faikah Gueler2, Karin Loser3, and Matthias Gunzer1 1 Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Junior Research Group Immunodynamics, Braunschweig; 2 Department of Nephrology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover; and 3 Department of Dermatology and Interdisciplinary Center of Clinical Research (IZKF), University of Münster, Münster, Germany Naive B cells are ineffective antigen-presenting cells and are considered unable to activate naive T cells. However, antigen-specific contact of these cells leads to stable cell pairs that remain associated over hours in vivo. The physiologic role of such pairs has not been evaluated. We show here that antigen-specific conjugates between naive B cells and naive T cells display a mature immunologic synapse in the contact zone that is absent in T-cell–dendritic-cell (DC) pairs. B cells induce substantial proliferation but, contrary to DCs, no loss of L-selectin in T cells. Surprisingly, while DC-triggered T cells develop into normal effector cells, B-cell stimulation over 72 hours induces regulatory T cells inhibiting priming of fresh T cells in a contact-dependent manner in vitro. In vivo, the regulatory T cells home to lymph nodes where they potently suppress immune responses such as in cutaneous hypersensitivity and ectopic allogeneic heart transplant rejection. Our finding might help to explain old observations on tolerance induction by B cells, identify the mature immunologic synapse as a central functional module of this process, and suggest the use of naive B-cell–primed regulatory T cells, "bTregs," as a useful approach for therapeutic intervention in adverse adaptive immune responses. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: S. Balkow, F. Krux, K. Loser, J. U. Becker, S. Grabbe, and U. Dittmer Friend retrovirus infection of myeloid dendritic cells impairs maturation, prolongs contact to naive T cells, and favors expansion of regulatory T cells Blood, December 1, 2007; 110(12): 3949 - 3958. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

	Blood Online is supported in part by Genentech BioOncology and Biogen Idec
	Copyright © 2007 by American Society of Hematology         Online ISSN: 1528-0020