The pre-B cell receptor appears to censor the development of certain autoantibody-secreting cells, as Rebecca A. Keenan and her team from The Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK report. The pre-B cell receptor is composed of immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy and substitute light chains. It seems to be involved in the negative selection of cells expressing heavy chains bearing the potential to generate autoantibodies. It thus may be an important factor in multifactorial autoimmune diseases.

In this study, elevated levels of antinuclear antibodies were found in the serum of surrogate light-chain–deficient mice. There was also evidence of pre-B cells expressing prototypic autoantibody heavy chains. Those pre-B cells probably escaped negative selection and matured to autoantibody secreting CD21–CD23–B cells in the periphery.

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Pre-B-cells

B cells

CD21

CD23

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