In vivo redundant function of the 3′ IgH regulatory element HS3b in the mouse

AG Bébin, C Carrion, M Marquet, N Cogné… - The Journal of …, 2010 - journals.aai.org
AG Bébin, C Carrion, M Marquet, N Cogné, S Lecardeur, M Cogné, E Pinaud
The Journal of Immunology, 2010journals.aai.org
In the mouse, the regulatory region located at the 3′ end of the IgH locus includes four
transcriptional enhancers: HS3a, HS1-2, HS3b, and HS4; the first three lie in a quasi-
palindromic structure. Although the upstream elements HS3a and HS1-2 proved
dispensable for Ig expression and class switch recombination (CSR), the joint deletion of
HS3b and HS4 led to a consistent decrease in IgH expression in resting B cells and to a
major CSR defect. Within this pair of distal enhancers, it was questionable whether HS3b …
Abstract
In the mouse, the regulatory region located at the 3′ end of the IgH locus includes four transcriptional enhancers: HS3a, HS1-2, HS3b, and HS4; the first three lie in a quasi-palindromic structure. Although the upstream elements HS3a and HS1-2 proved dispensable for Ig expression and class switch recombination (CSR), the joint deletion of HS3b and HS4 led to a consistent decrease in IgH expression in resting B cells and to a major CSR defect. Within this pair of distal enhancers, it was questionable whether HS3b and HS4 could be considered individually as elements critical for IgH expression and/or CSR. Studies in HS4-deficient mice recently revealed the role of HS4 as restricted to Igμ-chain expression from the pre-B to the mature B cell stage and left HS3b as the last candidate for CSR regulation. Our present study finally invalidates the hypothesis that CSR could mostly rely on HS3b itself. B cells from HS3b-deficient animals undergo normal proliferation, germline transcription, and CSR upon in vitro stimulation with LPS; in vivo Ag-specific responses are not affected. In conclusion, our study highlights a major effect of the global ambiance of the IgH locus; enhancers demonstrated as being strongly synergistic in transgenes turn out to be redundant in their endogenous context.
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