The Pyloric Caeca Area Is a Major Site for IgM+ and IgT+ B Cell Recruitment in Response to Oral Vaccination in Rainbow Trout

Although previous studies have characterized some aspects of the immune response of the teleost gut in response to diverse pathogens or stimuli, most studies have focused on the posterior segments exclusively. However, there are still many details of how teleost intestinal immunity is regulated that remain unsolved, including the location of IgM(+) and IgT(+) B cells along the digestive tract and their role during the course of a local stimulus. Thus, in the current work, we have studied the B cell response in five different segments of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) digestive tract in both naive fish and fish orally vaccinated with an alginate-encapsulated DNA vaccine against infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV). IgM(+) and IgT(+) cells were identified all along the tract with the exception of the stomach in naive fish. While IgM(+) cells were mostly located in the lamina propria (LP), IgT(+) cells were primarily localized as intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs). Scattered IgM(+) IELs were only detected in the pyloric caeca. In response to oral vaccination, the pyloric caeca region was the area of the digestive tract in which a major recruitment of B cells was demonstrated through both real time PCR and immunohistochemistry, observing a significant increase in the number of both IgM(+) and IgT(+) IELs. Our findings demonstrate that both IgM(+) and IgT(+) respond to oral stimulation and challenge the paradigm that teleost IELs are exclusively T cells. Unexpectedly, we have also detected B cells in the fat tissue associated to the digestive tract that respond to vaccination, suggesting that these cells surrounded by adipocytes also play a role in mucosal defense.