Decreased somatic hypermutation induces an impaired peripheral B cell tolerance checkpoint

J Clin Invest. 2016 Nov 1;126(11):4289-4302. doi: 10.1172/JCI84645. Epub 2016 Oct 4.

Abstract

Patients with mutations in AICDA, which encodes activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), display an impaired peripheral B cell tolerance. AID mediates class-switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM) in B cells, but the mechanism by which AID prevents the accumulation of autoreactive B cells in blood is unclear. Here, we analyzed B cell tolerance in AID-deficient patients, patients with autosomal dominant AID mutations (AD-AID), asymptomatic AICDA heterozygotes (AID+/-), and patients with uracil N-glycosylase (UNG) deficiency, which impairs CSR but not SHM. The low frequency of autoreactive mature naive B cells in UNG-deficient patients resembled that of healthy subjects, revealing that impaired CSR does not interfere with the peripheral B cell tolerance checkpoint. In contrast, we observed decreased frequencies of SHM in memory B cells from AD-AID patients and AID+/- subjects, who were unable to prevent the accumulation of autoreactive mature naive B cells. In addition, the individuals with AICDA mutations, but not UNG-deficient patients, displayed Tregs with defective suppressive capacity that correlated with increases in circulating T follicular helper cells and enhanced cytokine production. We conclude that SHM, but not CSR, regulates peripheral B cell tolerance through the production of mutated antibodies that clear antigens and prevent sustained interleukin secretions that interfere with Treg function.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • B-Lymphocytes / pathology
  • Cell Cycle Checkpoints / genetics
  • Cell Cycle Checkpoints / immunology*
  • Cytidine Deaminase / deficiency*
  • Cytidine Deaminase / immunology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immune Tolerance*
  • Immunologic Memory*
  • Male
  • Mutation*
  • Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin / immunology*
  • T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / immunology
  • T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / pathology

Substances

  • AICDA (activation-induced cytidine deaminase)
  • Cytidine Deaminase