B cell antibody responses are triggered by the binding of antigen to the clonally distributed B cell antigen receptors (BCRs). Over the last several years a great deal has been learned about the biochemistry of the complex signal cascades triggered by BCR antigen engagement. Signaling is initiated by phosphorylation of the BCR by a membrane associated member of the Src family kinase, Lyn. At present, the initiating event in B cell activation that brings the antigen bound BCR into contact with Lyn is not known. It now appears that cholesterol- and sphingolipid-rich membrane microdomains, termed lipid rafts, serve as platforms for both BCR signaling. Lipid rafts can be isolated from cells based on their relative insolubility in certain nonionic detergents at 4 degrees Celsius. Using detergent insolubility to isolate rafts we learned that in resting cells the BCR is excluded from rafts that concentrate Lyn but upon multivalent antigen binding, the BCR oligomerizes and associates with rafts where it is phosphorylated by Lyn and signaling is initiated. The translocation of the BCR into rafts does not require two of the earliest events in BCR signaling, namely the phosphorylation of the BCR by Lyn or association of the BCR with the actin cytoskeleton. However, the failure of the BCR to signal or to associate with the actin cytoskeleton results in only weak and transient association of the BCR with lipid rafts. The initiation of signaling in the rafts is followed by raft clustering and ultimately by the formation of a highly organized structure termed an immunological synapse from which BCR signaling may be prolonged. An exciting theme that emerged from our studies of the relationship of the BCR with rafts is one in which BCR raft association is regulated by a variety of factors that control the outcome of the B cell's encounter with antigen including the developmental state of the B cell, the engagement of coreceptors and viral infection. Determining how these factors influence BCR/raft association should add fundamentally to our understanding of how rafts function. Over the last year we have made progress in defining the mechanisms by which coreceptors function to regulate the association of the BCR with lipid rafts and as a consequence regulate signaling. The B cell coreceptors CD19/CD21 when coligated to the BCR through the binding of complement tagged antigens prolongs BCR residency in and signaling from rafts. We determined that the ability of the CD19/CD21 complex to function in rafts was dependent on a tetraspanin CD81 that is a component of the CD19/CD21 complex. Thus, in B cells from CD81-deficient mice and B cells expressing chimeric CD19 receptors that fail to associate with CD81, the CD19/CD21 complex when coligated to the BCR fails to stabilize the BCR in rafts. Many proteins that associate with lipid rafts do so by virtue of their acylation in particular by their palmitoylation, a reversible acylation event. We determined that CD81 becomes palmitoylated in the lipid rafts following crosslinking of the BCR and the CD19/CD21 complex. Palmitoylation appeared essential for the function of CD81 as blocking palmitoylation using the inhibitor 2-bromopalmitate blocked the ability of the CD19/CD21 complex to stabilize the BCR in lipid rafts when coligated to the BCR. Studies are in progress to determine the nature of the palmitoylating enzyme and to determine if raft stabilization through palmitoylation is a shared function of other members of the tetraspanin family. Progress was also made in determining how the FcgammaRIIB, a potent negative regulator of BCR signaling in mature B cells, signals for apoptosis in immature B cells. We learned that the FcgammaRIIB when crosslinked to itself becomes associated with lipid rafts and signals for apoptosis by a mechanism dependent on c-Abl. This mechanism is distinct from that by which the FcgammaRIIB regulates BCR signaling in mature B cells and we are currently investigating the relationship, if any, between these two functions of the FcgammaRIIB. Our interest in the negative regulation of BCR signaling led us to investigate the role of the molecular adaptor Cbl-b in BCR signaling. Comparing Cbl-b-deficient and wild type mice we determined that Cbl-b dampens BCR signaling by mediating the degradation of the essential tyrosine kinase Syk by its ubiquitination. Following BCR crosslinking the BCR showed sustained polarization in to large signaling active caps associated with phosphorylated Syk and studies are in progress to determine the relationship of Syk, these caps and lipid rafts. Progress has also been made in establishing a method to measure the association of the BCR with lipid rafts in intact cells in the absence of detergent. The use of detergents to analyze rafts is associated with a number of potential artifacts including the possibility that the detergent treatment creates the insoluble membranes. To measure association between the BCR and lipid rafts in intact cells, B cell lines have been generated that express a chimeric BCR Ig alpha chain containing in its cytoplasmic domain a cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and a chimeric, raft-resident Lyn kinase that contains in its cytoplasmic domain yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Association of the BCR and Lyn results in fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) between CFP and YFP that is detected using a META 510 spectral confocal microscope. This system should not only allow a verification of the results obtained using detergent extraction but provide a more detailed view of the interaction of the BCR with lipid rafts. Lastly, a collaboration has been established with Dr. Mark Shlomchik's laboratory at Yale University to determine the antigen affinity and valency requirements for the induction of the association of the BCR with lipid rafts. B cells from mice that express transgenes for BCR with either high, medium or low affinity for the small chemical haptin, nitrophenol (NP) are stimulated with NP-modified proteins containing increasing numbers of NP groups to determine a binding affinity and valency threshold for the induction of BCR raft association. These studies should provide important details concerning the initiating event in antigen-dependent B cell activation.
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