Defective B cell responses in the absence of SH2D1A

More than half of patients with X-linked lympho-proliferative disease, which is caused by a defect in the intracellular adapter protein SH2D1A, suffer from an extreme susceptibility to Epstein-Barr virus. One-third of these patients, however, develop dysgammaglobulenemia without an episode of severe mononucleosis. Here we show that in [SH2D1A.sup.-/-] mice, both primary and secondary responses of all Ig subclasses are severely impaired in response to specific antigens. Because germinal centers were absent in [SH2D1A.sup.-/-] mice upon primary immunization, and because SH2D1A was detectable in wt germinal center B cells, we examined whether [SH2D1A.sup.-/-] B cell functions were impaired. Using the adoptive cotransfer of B lymphocytes from hapten-primed [SH2D1A.sup.-/-] mice with CD[4.sup.+] T cells from primed wt mice into irradiated wt mice provided evidence that signal transduction events controlled by SH2DIA are essential for B cell activities resulting in antigen specific IgG production. Defects in naive [SH2D1A.sup.-/-] B cells became evident upon cotransfer with non-primed wt CD[4.sup.+] cells into Rag[2.sup.-/-] recipients. Thus, both defective T and B cells exist in the absence of SH2D1A, which may explain the progressive dysgammaglobulinemia in a subset of X-linked lympho-proliferative disease patients without involvement of Epstein-Barr virus. Epstein Barrvirus | germinal center | immunoglobulin | SLAM/CD150