Aryl hydrocarbon receptor is required for optimal B-cell proliferation.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a transcription factor known for mediating xenobiotic toxicity, is expressed in B cells, which are known targets for environmental pollutants. However, it is unclear what the physiological functions of AhR in B cells are. We show here that expression of Ahr in B cells is up-regulated upon B-cell receptor (BCR) engagement and IL-4 treatment. Addition of a natural ligand of AhR, FICZ, induces AhR translocation to the nucleus and transcription of the AhR target gene Cyp1a1, showing that the AhR pathway is functional in B cells. AhR-deficient (Ahr-/-) B cells proliferate less than AhR-sufficient (Ahr+/+) cells following in vitro BCR stimulation and in vivo adoptive transfer models confirmed that Ahr-/- B cells are outcompeted by Ahr+/+ cells. Transcriptome comparison of AhR-deficient and AhR-sufficient B cells identified cyclin O (Ccno), a direct target of AhR, as a top candidate affected by AhR deficiency. © 2016 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

Citation

Matteo Villa, Manolis Gialitakis, Mauro Tolaini, Helena Ahlfors, Colin J Henderson, C Roland Wolf, Robert Brink, Brigitta Stockinger. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor is required for optimal B-cell proliferation. The EMBO journal. 2017 Jan 04;36(1):116-128

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PMID: 27875245

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