Webb S R, Li J H, Wilson D B, Sprent J
Eur J Immunol. 1985 Jan;15(1):92-6. doi: 10.1002/eji.1830150118.
To investigate whether small B cells can stimulate mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR), highly purified populations of large vs. small B cell fractions were tested for their capacity to evoke MLR across Mls vs. H-2 barriers. Large B cell fractions stimulated high MLR to Mls and H-2 determinants, irrespective of whether the stimulators were exposed to irradiation or pretreated with mitomycin C. In accord with the findings of others, irradiated small B cell fractions proved to be very poor stimulators of MLR. Significantly, however, mitomycin C-treated small B cell fractions elicited high MLR, particularly to Mls determinants. The finding that small B cell fractions treated with irradiation are poor stimulators of T cells correlates with the known radiosensitivity of B cells. In this respect, the widely held view that small B cells do not have antigen-presenting cell (APC) function rests largely on studies with irradiated B cells. The present finding that T cells respond well to small B cells treated with mitomycin C, however, indicates that small B cell fractions do have APC function. Whether the APC function of small B cells reflects a response to resting B cells per se rather than to cells undergoing activation in vitro, however, remains to be ascertained.
为了研究小B细胞是否能刺激混合淋巴细胞反应（MLR），对高度纯化的大B细胞与小B细胞组分群体跨越Mls和H-2屏障引发MLR的能力进行了检测。大B细胞组分对Mls和H-2决定簇刺激产生高MLR，无论刺激细胞是接受照射还是用丝裂霉素C预处理。与其他人的研究结果一致，经照射的小B细胞组分被证明是非常差的MLR刺激细胞。然而，值得注意的是，经丝裂霉素C处理的小B细胞组分引发了高MLR，尤其是对Mls决定簇。经照射处理的小B细胞组分是T细胞的差刺激细胞这一发现与已知的B细胞放射敏感性相关。在这方面，小B细胞不具有抗原呈递细胞（APC）功能这一广泛持有的观点很大程度上基于对经照射B细胞的研究。然而，目前T细胞对经丝裂霉素C处理的小B细胞反应良好这一发现表明小B细胞组分确实具有APC功能。然而，小B细胞的APC功能是反映对静止B细胞本身的反应还是对体外正在经历激活的细胞的反应，仍有待确定。
