Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE
Volume 208, Issue 10, Pages 2033-2042Publisher
ROCKEFELLER UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1084/jem.20110200
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health [HD037091, AI071163, DK76126, AI40305, AI46637, 5T32AR007108-32]
- ACR Research Education Foundation
- Arthritis Foundation
- PIDTC
- Cancer Research Institute
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Patients with the immunodeficiency Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) frequently develop systemic autoimmunity. Here, we demonstrate that mutation of the WAS gene results in B cells that are hyperresponsive to B cell receptor and Toll-like receptor (TLR) signals in vitro, thereby promoting a B cell-intrinsic break in tolerance. Whereas this defect leads to autoantibody production in WAS protein-deficient (WASp(-/-)) mice without overt disease, chimeric mice in which only the B cell lineage lacks WASp exhibit severe autoimmunity characterized by spontaneous germinal center formation, class-switched autoantibodies, renal histopathology, and early mortality. Both T cell help and B cell-intrinsic TLR engagement play important roles in promoting disease in this model, as depletion with anti-CD4 antibodies or generation of chimeric mice with B cells deficient in both WASp and MyD88 prevented development of autoimmune disease. These data highlight the potentially harmful role for cell-intrinsic loss of B cell tolerance in the setting of normal T cell function, and may explain why WAS patients with mixed chimerism after stem cell transplantation often develop severe humoral autoimmunity.
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