Antibody responses can be up- or down-regulated by passive administration of specific antibody together with antigen. Depending on the structure of the antigen and the antibody isotype, responses can be completely suppressed or enhanced up to a 1000-fold of what is seen in animals immunized with antigen alone. IgG suppresses primary antibody responses against erythrocytes. Suppression works well in mice lacking Fc-receptors for IgG, C1q, C3, or complement receptor 1 and 2 (CR1/2). Here, we demonstrate that IgG anti-NP given to mice together with NP-conjugated sheep erythrocytes, suppresses the generation of NP-specific extra-follicular antibody-secreting cells, NP-specific germinal center B cells, induction of memory and long-lived plasma cells. IgG increases antigen clearance but this does not explain the suppressed antibody response. It is demonstrated that IgG-mediated suppression of IgG responses is epitope specific, suggesting that epitope masking is the dominant explanation for IgG-mediated suppression of antibody responses. Both IgE and IgG3 can enhance antibody responses against soluble antigens. IgE-antigen complexes bind to recirculating B cells expressing CD23, an Fc-receptor for IgE. Thirty minutes after intravenous administration, IgE-antigen is found in splenic follicles. Subsequently, germinal center responses, antigen-specific T cell proliferation, and antibody responses are enhanced. We show that also antigen conjugated to anti-CD23 can bind to CD23+ B cells and be transported to splenic follicles. CD11+ spleen cells, rather than CD23+ B cells, present IgE-antigen complexes to T cells. Here, it is demonstrated that CD8α− conventional dendritic cells is the CD11c+ cell population presenting IgE-antigen to T cells. IgG3-mediated enhancement is dependent on CR1/2. We find that IgG3-antigen complexes, administered intravenously to mice, bind to marginal zone B cells via CR1/2. These cells then transport IgG3-antigen into splenic follicles and deposit antigen onto follicular dendritic cells. Mice treated with FTY720, a drug which dislocates marginal zone B cells from the marginal zone, impairs this transport. Studies in bone marrow chimeric mice show that CR1/2 on both B cells and follicular dendritic cells are crucial for IgG3-mediated enhancement. In summary, these observations suggest that antibodies can feedback regulate antibody responses by modulating the access of antigen to the immune system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-302780 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Xu, Hui |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för medicinsk biokemi och mikrobiologi, Uppsala |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, 1651-6206 ; 1255 |
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