Inositol phospholipid and intracellular calcium metabolism in B lymphocytes stimulated with antigen.

Stimulation of B lymphocytes by anti mu antibody can activate the phosphatidylinositol pathway, but B cell activation by LPS does not involve this pathway. This study was done to determine if stimulation of B lymphocytes by their specific antigen involves this important activation pathway. We showed that levels of IP2 and IP3 increase while PIP and PIP2 decline when dinitrophenyl specific B lymphocytes are stimulated with the antigen DNP-Ficoll. Intracellular calcium concentration also increases with this stimulus. Thus, antigen stimulation of B lymphocytes is associated with activation of phosphatidylinositol pathway.