Schistosoma japonicum soluble egg antigens activate naive B cells to produce antibodies: definition of parasite mechanisms of immune deviation.

This study analysed the effect of Schistosoma japonicum egg antigens (SEA) on the activation of lymphocytes from naive mice. T cells were found to be unaffected by SEA. B cells, however, were activated by SEA without participation of adherent cells such as macrophages. B-cell activating factor(s) in SEA were distributed into a fraction of M(r) 120,000 and a fraction of M(r) 650,000 by gel filtration. However, a fraction of M(r) 120,000 demonstrated the presence of a limited number of components by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) under non-denaturing conditions. These activating factor(s) were destroyed by peroxidase oxidation, heat treatment, chymotrypsin and trypsin digestion. These results indicate that the B-cell activating factor(s) in SEA contain both carbohydrate and protein. IgM antibodies were detected in the culture supernatant of SEA-activated B cells after 48 hr in culture, but IgG antibodies were undetected in culture. These antibodies did not react with SEA but reacted with sheep, horse, mouse red blood cells, carbonic anhydrase and autoantigens in myelinated nerve fibres of cerebrum as well as luminal surface and parietal cells of the stomach of naive mice. Thus our data demonstrated that SEA directly stimulates naive B cells to produce antibodies against heterophile and autologous antigens.