Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: The lipid Gb3 promotes germinal center B cell responses and anti-viral immunity
doi: 10.1101/2023.09.23.559132
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Diagrammatic representation of the experimental set-up. WT, Gla -KO, or A4galt -KO mice were immunized with NP-OVA adsorbed on alum. (B) FACS plots and percentages of centroblasts (CB) and centrocytes (CC) in the spleen on day 10 post immunization. Each dot represents one mouse (7 or 8 mice per group), and the experiment was repeated three times. (C) Immunoblot showing BCR and CD19 downstream signaling molecules and transcription factors. Anti-BCR antibodies (F(ab) 2 ) were used to stimulate FACS-sorted GC B cells for 2 or 5 minutes. U = unstimulated. (D) Proximity ligation assay (PLA) performed on GC B cells to probe for vicinity between CD81 and CD19 (top panel; blue = DAPI, red = CD19:CD81 PLA signal), and BCR and CD19 (bottom panel; blue = DAPI, red = CD19:BCR PLA signal). In all panels, experiments were repeated at least three times, and PLA signal on more than 30 cells in different fields was calculated for statistical analysis. (E) PLA performed on FACS-sorted GC B cells to probe for proximity between CD19 and Gb3 (blue = DAPI, red = CD19:Gb3 PLA signal). PLA signal was captured by confocal microscopy, and images were processed and analyzed by Image J software. Experiment was repeated at least three times, and PLA signal on more than 30 cells in different fields was calculated for statistical analysis. (F) Structures of different lipids and Gb3 analog used in the study. (G) Phospho-flow to examine the effect of lipid reconstitution on Akt phosphorylation in GC B cells from A4galt -KO mice. Histogram overlay and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of pAkt staining in GC B cells cultured with different lipids (bottom panel). FACS-sorted GC B cells from A4galt -KO mice were seeded with a complex of lipid and BSA for 2h at 37°C (see methods), and Akt phosphorylation was quantified after stimulation of GC B cells with F(ab) 2 . (H) Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to measure the binding between Gb3 and CD19. CD19 and the Gb3 analog were dissolved in PBS, and thermodynamic analysis of their binding was carried out at 25°C on a MicroCal ITC 200 instrument. Top panel: x-axis depicts time, and y-axis represents rate of heat release (μcal/sec). Bottom panel: x-axis represents molar ratio between CD19 and Gb3-analog, and y-axis depicts change in enthalpy. (I) A mechanistic scheme of the effect of Gb3 on the CD19 translocation and BCR downstream signaling pathway. The p -values in all graphs were calculated by Kruskal-Wallis H test with Dunn’s multiple comparison test.
Article Snippet: Anti-mouse p-STAT-2 (polyclonal), STAT-1 (STAT1-79), and p-CD19 (polyclonal) were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA), while anti-mouse CD77 (BGR23) was purchased from Creative Biolabs.
Techniques: Western Blot, Proximity Ligation Assay, Confocal Microscopy, Software, Fluorescence, Staining, Cell Culture, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry, Binding Assay, Translocation Assay, Comparison