The Role of the Pre-B Cell Receptor in B Cell Development, Repertoire Selection, and Tolerance

Around four decades ago, it had been observed that there were cell lines as well as cells in the fetal liver that expressed antibody mu heavy (mu H) chains in the apparent absence of bona fide light chains. It was thus possible that these cells expressed another molecule(s), that assembled with mu H chains. The ensuing studies led to the discovery of the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR), which is assembled from Ig mu H and surrogate light (SL) chains, together with the signaling molecules Ig a and beta. It is expressed on a fraction of pro-B (pre-BI) cells and most large pre-B(II) cells, and has been implicated in IgH chain allelic exclusion and down-regulation of the recombination machinery, assessment of the expressed mu H chains and shaping the IgH repertoire, transition from the pro-B to pre-B stage, pre-B cell expansion, and cessation.