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1: J Leukoc Biol. 2008 Apr;83(4):817-21. Epub 2008 Jan 11.
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Comment in:
Pivotal advance: eosinophils mediate early alum adjuvant-elicited B cell priming and IgM production.

Wang HB, Weller PF.

Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Division of Allergy and Inflammation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston MA, 02215, USA.

Alum, aluminum-hydroxide-containing compounds, long used as adjuvants in human vaccinations, functions by ill-defined, immunostimulatory mechanisms. Antigen-free alum has been shown to act via a previously unidentified, splenic Gr1(+), IL-4-expressing myeloid cell population to stimulate early B cell priming. We demonstrate that the alum-elicited and -activated splenic myeloid cells are IL-4-expressing eosinophils that function to prime B cell responses. Eosinophils are the principal Gr1(+), IL-4(+) cells in the spleens 6 days following i.p. alum administration. Alum-elicited splenic B cell priming, as evidenced by MHC II cross-linking-mediated calcium mobilization developed in wild-type BALB/c mice, was absent in DeltadblGATA BALB/c eosinophil-deficient mice and could be reconstituted by adoptive eosinophil infusions into the eosinophil-deficient mice. Moreover, early antigen-specific IgM antibody responses in alum-antigen-immunized mice were impaired in eosinophil-deficient mice and were restored with adoptive transfers of eosinophils. Thus, eosinophils, leukocytes of the innate immune system that contain preformed cytokines, including IL-4, have novel, immunomodulatory roles in the initial priming of B cells elicited by the adjuvant alum and in the optimal early B cell generation of antigen-specific IgM.

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PMID: 18192490 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]