A subfraction of B220+ cells in murine bone marrow and spleen does not belong to the B cell lineage but has dendritic cell characteristics

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Abstract
Although CD45R / B220 is commonly used as a pan‐B cell marker in the mouse, not all B220+ cells belong to the B cell lineage. Here we report the characterization of a subpopulation ofB220+CD19– cells in murine bone marrow, which failed to express markers that are present in early CD19– B cell precursors. Instead, these cells expressed low levels of MHC class II and CD11c, which are typically found on dendritic cells (DC). Moreover, these B220+CD19–CD11c+ cells expressed Gr‐1, indicating that they are related to the recently identified murine plasmacytoid DC or their progenitors. Therefore, we evaluated surface marker expression of the B220+CD19–CD11c+ cells in lymphoid tissues of C57BL / 6 mice, recombinase activating gene‐1 deficient mice, lacking mature B and T lymphocytes, and mice with a targeted disruption of the Ig H chain μ membrane exon (μMT), lacking mature B lymphocytes. When comparing bone marrow and spleen, we found that the surface profiles of B220+CD19–CD11c+ cells were remarkably similar, indicating that they are in a comparable maturation or activation stage in the two lymphoid compartments. In addition, the almost complete absence of peripheral B220+ B‐lineage cells in μMT mice allowed the anatomical localization of the B220+CD19–CD11c+ cells to the red pulp and the T cell areas in the spleen. Taken together, our findings indicate that the mouse bone marrow contains a recirculatingpopulation of B220+CD19– CD11c+ plasmacytoid DC, the development of which is largely independent of the presence of mature T and B cells.

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