Heterogeneity of complement receptor expression on surface immunoglobulin-bearing cells from neonatal and adult mice.

The ontogeny of acquisition of complement receptors (CR) on splenic B lymphocytes from mice of varying ages was examined. Reagents used for the identification of CR included antibody- and complement-coated erythrocytes (EAC), bacteria (BAC) and bacteria treated with complement alone (BC). When whole mouse serum used as the source of complement both EAC and BAC failed to bind to human erythrocytes (C3b receptor-negative), showed binding to Raji and Daudi cells (C3d receptor) and formed rosettes with human neutrophils (C3bi receptor). Therefore these reagents bore C3d and C3bi, but not intact C3b. Although EAc and BAC detected nearly equal percentages of CR lymphocytes in adult mice, BAC bound to a higher percentage of neonatal lymphocytes (8-12%) than did EAC (1-3%). The ability of BAC to detect EAC-negative lymphocytes among neonatal spleen lymphocytes appeared to be due to the increased sensitivity of this bacterial reagent for binding to CR. Further evidence of this enhanced sensitivity was that BAC were less inhibitable than EAC by soluble antigen-antibody-complement complexes.