EndoU is a novel regulator of AICD during peripheral B cell selection

Poe, Jonathan C.; Kountikov, Evgueni I.; Lykken, Jacquelyn M.; Natarajan, Abirami; Marchuk, Douglas A.; Tedder, Thomas F.

Molecules that regulate lymphocyte homeostasis, proliferation, and survival operate in concert to enable robust adaptive immune responses to foreign antigens (Ags). For the B cell lineage, the optimal outcome of these processes is a diverse antibody (Ab) repertoire purged of pathological (self-reactive) B cells. The elimination of pathological B cells occurs either through clonal deletion or receptor editing during B lymphopoiesis in the bone marrow, or in the periphery through the induction of anergy (Goodnow et al., 1988; Nemazee and Bürki, 1989; Gay et al., 1993; Tiegs et al., 1993) . Anergic B cells primarily inhabit the spleen, are short-lived, and undergo activation-induced cell death (AICD) in response to B cell Ag receptor (BCR) stimulation (Goodnow et al., 1995; Shlomchik, 2008) .