Abstract
B cells were first discovered as antibody producing cells, as B-1 B cells and finally as effector cells. In recent years their capacity to serve as antigen presenting cells is increasingly appreciated, and better tools are needed to study their function. We have previously described a new mouse model, the iDTR mice, that allow for the Cre-mediated expression of the diphtheria toxin receptor, thus rendering cells that express the Cre-recombinase sensitivity to diphtheria toxin. Herein we describe a new mouse line, the B-DTR mice, where the CD19-Cre was crossed to the iDTR mice. B-DTR allows for the efficient and cost-effective depletion of different B cell subpopulations, but only partially plasma cells. These mice can therefore be used to study the importance of B cells versus plasma cells in different immune responses and autoimmune diseases.
Highlights
The B cell lineage participates in immune responses through various means, including cytokine secretion, antigen presentation and production as well as secretion of antibodies
Using the iDTR/CD19-Cre system we found efficiency of up to 99% depletion of different B cell subpopulations, when the mice were treated by intra peritoneal injections of a daily dose of 25 ng diphtheria toxin (DT) per gr bodyweight for 4 days
The course of different autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and others benefits from the depletion of B cells [23,24,25,26,27,28]
Summary
The B cell lineage participates in immune responses through various means, including cytokine secretion, antigen presentation and production as well as secretion of antibodies. Depletion of B cells has proven useful in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. It results in the reduction of autoantibodies [1,2,3,4,5] and affects autoimmune diseases through unknown mechanisms as seen in multiple sclerosis [6,7,8,9]. B cell depletion is used as therapy in lymphomas [10,11,12,13,14,15]. Nowadays depletion of B cells is a common therapy in clinical routine and especially anti-CD20 antibodies are commonly used [16,17,18]. A depletion of plasma cells would be advantageous to mediate a decrease of serum immunoglobulin
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