Gestational exposure to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin disrupts B-cell lymphopoiesis and exacerbates autoimmune disease in 24-week-old SNF1 mice

Abstract

Female SNF1 hybrid mice spontaneously develop an immune complex - mediated glomerulonephritis as early as 24 weeks of age, whereas the disease onset in males is much slower. Further, a rise in concentration of glomerulus-specific autoantibodies via autoreactive B cells is critical to progression of the disease in this strain. Environmental factors contributing to the onset or degree of such autoimmunity are of interest yet poorly understood. In the present study, time-pregnant SWR × NZB dams (10/treatment) were gavaged on gestational 12 with 40 or 80 mg/kg 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and the SNF1 offspring were evaluated at 24 weeks of age. Bone marrow B220low-CD24-AA4.1+ committed B lineage progenitors were increased in female offspring by TCDD, however, committed progenitors and pro-B cells were decreased in males. Splenic marginal zone B cells (CD21hi CD24low-int) were decreased and follicular B cells (CD21intCD24low) were increased across sex by prenatal TCDD, whereas transitional-2 B cells (CD21int CD24hi) and (CD23low-int CD1low-int) were decreased in males only. Antibodies to double-stranded DNA were significantly increased across sex by TCDD. Anti-IgG and anti-C3 immune complex renal deposition was visibly worsened in females, and present in TCDD-treated males. These data suggest that developmental exposure to TCDD permanently and differentially alters humoral immune function by sex, and exacerbates a type III hypersensitivity lupus-like autoimmune disease in genetically predisposed mice. © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology. All rights reserved.