A transgenic marker expressed on discrete populations during B-cell development

Abstract

We describe a transgenic mouse strain that selectively express a surface marker (huCD25) on transitional B cells, pre-B cells and a lineage unidentified bone marrow (BM) population. We show that a subpopulation of B cells in Peyer's patches, spleen, blood and BM expressed the transgenic huCD25 marker on the cell surface. In the spleen, the huCD25 expression was found on transitional B cells, that had not yet been recruited into the recirculating pool. In the BM a fraction of the B220low surface immunoglobulin (Ig) negative PB493+ pre-B cells were huCD25+. HuCD25 expression was also seen on practically all immature B cells while the mature recirculating B cells did not express huCD25. A huCD25+B220- cell population was also found in the BM that had not rearranged the Ig heavy chain locus and did not express the lineage markers CD3, T-cell receptor (TCR), CD19 and Mac-1. A low expression of CD4 on these cells may indicate that they represent a noncommitted, hematopoetic progenitor cell population.