Dendritic cell–B‐cell interaction: dendritic cells provide B cells with CD40‐independent proliferation signals and CD40‐dependent survival signals

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Abstract
Summary: Dendritic cells (DC) have recently been shown to play an important role in B‐cell function. We have previously shown that DC can capture and retain unprocessed antigen in vitro and in vivo, and can transfer this antigen to naive B cells to initiate antigen‐specific antibody responses. We also demonstrated that DC were providing B cells with isotype‐switch signals independent of T cells but that T‐cell help was essential for antibody production. In this study, using B cells and DC from wild type (WT) and CD40 knockout (CD40KO) mice we show that DC initiate proliferation of B cells independently of CD40, because WT or CD40KO DC could induce proliferation of WT or CD40KO B cells, but proliferation was greater in the absence of CD40. DC also provide B cells with survival signals as WT DC improved viability of B cells after a 5‐day culture but survival was reduced in the absence of CD40 expression.