Vitamin C acts indirectly to modulate isotype switching in mouse B cells.
- Author:
Ami WOO
1
;
Jin Hee KIM
;
Young Joo JEONG
;
Hyung Gun MAENG
;
Yong Taek LEE
;
Jae Seung KANG
;
Wang Jae LEE
;
Young il HWANG
Author Information
- Publication Type:In Vitro ; Original Article
- Keywords: Vitamin C; antioxidant; reactive oxygen species; mouse B cell; isotype switching
- MeSH: Animals; Apoptosis; Ascorbic Acid; B-Lymphocytes; Dendritic Cells; Immunity, Humoral; Immunoglobulin Class Switching; Immunoglobulin G; Injections, Intraperitoneal; Mammals; Mice; Micronutrients; Reactive Oxygen Species; Vitamins
- From:Anatomy & Cell Biology 2010;43(1):25-35
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Vitamin C, one of essential micronutrients, has been reported to modulate the humoral immune responses in some mammals. We investigated whether vitamin C might modulate this response in mice by directly affecting B cells. Splenic B cells were isolated and activated by CD40- and B cell receptor-ligation in vitro. The cells were cultured with a pretreatment of vitamin C from 0 to 1 mM of concentrations. Vitamin C slightly increased apoptosis of B cells dose-dependently and behaved as an antioxidant. We found that in vivo administration of vitamin C by intraperitoneal injection affected isotype switching as previously reported: the titer of antigen-specific IgG1 antibody was decreased, while that of IgG2a was unaffected. Somewhat different from those observed in vivo, in vitro exposure to vitamin C slightly decreased isotype switching to IgG1 and increased isotype switching to IgG2a. Pretreatment with vitamin C in the safe range did not affect either proliferation of cultured B cells or the expression of CD80 and CD86 in those cells. Taken together, in vivo results suggest that vitamin C acts to modulate isotype switching in the mouse. However, because of our in vitro results, we suggest that the modulation exerted by vitamin C in vivo is by indirectly affecting B cells, perhaps by directly influencing other immune cells such as dendritic cells.
