Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America.
Division of Biomedical Engineering Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 17;14(1):e0210284. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210284. eCollection 2019.
Spaceflight affects the immune system, but the effects on the antibody repertoire, responsible for humoral immunity, has not been well explored. In particular, the complex gene assembly and expression process; including mutations, might make this process vulnerable. Complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3), composed of parts of the V-(D-)J-gene segments, is very important for antigen binding and can be used as an important measure of variability. Skeletal unloading, and the physiological effects of it, parallel many impacts of space flight. Therefore, we explored the impact of skeletal unloading using the antiorthostatic suspension (AOS) model. Animals were experimentally challenged with tetanus toxoid (TT) and/or the adjuvant CpG. Blood was analyzed for anti-TT antibody and corticosterone concentrations. Whole spleen tissue was prepared for repertoire characterization. AOS animals showed higher levels of corticosterone levels, but AOS alone did not affect anti-TT serum antibody levels. Administration of CpG significantly increased the circulating anti-TT antibody concentrations. AOS did alter constant gene usage resulting in higher levels of IgM and lower levels of IgG. CpG also altered constant gene region usage increasing usage of IgA. Significant changes could be detected in multiple V-, D-, and J-gene segments in both the heavy and light chains in response to AOS, TT, and CpG treatments. Analysis of class-switched only transcripts revealed a different pattern of V-gene segment usage than detected in the whole repertoire and also showed significant alterations in gene segment usage after challenge. Alterations in V/J pairing were also detected in response to challenge. CDR3 amino acid sequence overlaps were similar among treatment groups, though the addition of CpG lowered overlap in the heavy chain. We isolated 3,045 whole repertoire and 98 potentially TT-specific CDR3 sequences for the heavy chain and 569 for the light chain. Our results demonstrate that AOS alters the repertoire response to challenge with TT and/or CpG.
航天飞行会影响免疫系统,但对负责体液免疫的抗体库的影响尚未得到充分探索。特别是,复杂的基因组装和表达过程,包括突变,可能使这个过程变得脆弱。互补决定区 3(CDR3)由 V-(D-)J 基因片段的部分组成,对于抗原结合非常重要,可作为变异性的重要衡量标准。骨骼卸载及其生理效应与航天飞行的许多影响平行。因此,我们使用抗重力悬挂(AOS)模型探索了骨骼卸载的影响。动物实验性地用破伤风类毒素(TT)和/或佐剂 CpG 进行挑战。分析血液中的抗 TT 抗体和皮质酮浓度。制备整个脾脏组织用于库特征描述。AOS 动物的皮质酮水平较高,但 AOS 本身并不影响抗 TT 血清抗体水平。CpG 的给药显著增加了循环抗 TT 抗体浓度。AOS 确实改变了恒定基因的使用,导致 IgM 水平升高和 IgG 水平降低。CpG 还改变了恒定基因区域的使用,增加了 IgA 的使用。在重链和轻链的多个 V-、D-和 J-基因片段中,都可以检测到对 AOS、TT 和 CpG 处理的显著变化。对仅发生类别转换的转录本的分析显示,与整个库中检测到的 V 基因片段使用模式不同,在受到挑战后,基因片段的使用也发生了显著变化。挑战还检测到 V/J 配对的改变。尽管添加 CpG 降低了重链中的重叠,但处理组之间的 CDR3 氨基酸序列重叠相似。我们分离了 3045 个全库和 98 个可能针对 TT 的重链 CDR3 序列和 569 个轻链 CDR3 序列。我们的结果表明,AOS 改变了对 TT 和/或 CpG 挑战的库反应。