Differential expression of the blk and ret tyrosine kinases during B lineage development is dependent on Ig rearrangement.

Expression of Ig transgenes in recombination-deficient mutant scid and Rag-1-mice results in the generation of pre-B and B cells, which are normally absent from these animals. In screening for protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) that may play a role in this progression beyond the pro-B stage, we have identified five differentially regulated PTKs and compared their gene expression in defined stages of early B-lineage cells from normal, mutant, and Ig-transgenic mutant mice. Three PTKs (fgr, flk2/flt3, and tsk) show a comparable decrease at an early stage in all mice. In contrast, the decreasing expression of ret and the increasing expression of blk seen in differentiating B cells from normal mice are not observed in the mutant mice, unless they carry Ig transgenes. Therefore, our results show that the expression of certain PTKs is dependent on productive Ig rearrangement and suggest important roles for both Ret and Blk at distinct stages in the Ig-dependent progression of B cell differentiation.