Ras activation of Erk restores impaired tonic BCR signaling and rescues immature B cell differentiation.

ABSTRACT: B cell receptors (BCRs) generate tonic signals critical for B cell survival and early B cell development. To determine whether these signals also mediate the development of transitional and mature B cells, we examined B cell development using a mouse strain in which nonautoreactive immunoglobulin heavy and light chain-targeted B cells express low surface BCR levels. We found that reduced BCR expression translated into diminished tonic BCR signals that strongly impaired the development of transitional and mature B cells. Constitutive expression of Bcl-2 did not rescue the differentiation of BCR-low B cells, suggesting that this defect was not related to decreased cell survival. In contrast, activation of the Ras pathway rescued the differentiation of BCR-low immature B cells both in vitro a

SUBMITTER: Rowland SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2839140 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature