Spontaneous antibody production caused by regulatory T cell deficiency occurs through a germinal center-independent pathway

Abstract

Foxp3⁺ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are essential for the prevention of autoantibody and allergen-specific IgE production. Treg deficiency causes an elevation of the serum levels of these pathogenic antibodies, accompanied by spontaneous germinal center (GC) formation. However, it remains to be determined whether excessive and pathogenic antibody production induced by Treg deficiency requires a GC response. Here, we demonstrate that spontaneous antibody production observed in Foxp3 conditional-knockout mice did not need GC formation. Foxp3 and Bcl6 conditional-double knockout mice exhibited spontaneous elevations of IgG1, IgG2c, and IgE levels even though they showed impaired production of IgG1 and IgE specific for the immunized antigen. Furthermore, the IgG1 and IgE antibodies specific for auto- and food-antigens were produced independently of GCs. These data suggested that a GC response was unnecessary for pathogenic antibody production caused by Treg deficiency.

Keywords: Allergy; Antibody; Autoimmunity; Germinal center; Humoral immune response; Regulatory T cell deficiency.