FUNCTIONAL MATURATION OF B CELLS INVITRO

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 32  (3) , 275-281
Abstract
Maturation of [mouse] B[bone marrow-derived]-cell function was studied in a 2-stage tissue culture system. In the 1st stage, cells were cultured in the absence of antigen and then transferred to microcultures where the frequency of hapten-specific plaque-forming cell (PFC) precursors was determined. Bone-marrow cells and spleen cells from 6-8 day old mice acted as sources of B-cell neogenesis in vitro. Both populations had very low initial frequencies of hapten-specific PFC precursors, but this increased 10- to 17-fold during a period of 72 h in the preliminary cultures. This increase could not be accounted for by selective cell death, nor by decay of a suppressor cell subpopulation, nor by proliferation of pre-existing Fc-receptor-bearing B cells. The mechanism for the increase in frequency of functional B cells in cultures of bone marrow and neonatal spleen was the result of maturation of B-cell precursors to a state of immune competence during the culture interval.