Effects of Human Soluble BAFF
Synthesized in Escherichia coli on CD4+ and CD8+
T Lymphocytes as well as NK Cells in Mice
X. SHAN1, L. CHEN1,2, M.
CAO1, L. XU1, S. ZHANG1
1Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory for Molecular and
Medical Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal
University, 2Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for
Bio-medical Function Materials, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China China
Received date June 15, 2005
Accepted date August 1, 2005
On-line available August 5, 2005
Summary
B cell-activating factor belonging to the TNF family (BAFF, also
called BLyS, TALL-1, zTNF-4, or THANK) is an important survival
factor for B lymphocytes. In this study, we injected mouse
abdominal cavity with human soluble BAFF (hsBAFF, 0.01, 0.1,
0.5, 2 mg/kg body mass) synthesized in Escherichia coli. On the
8th day after injection, we investigated the effects of hsBAFF
on immune functional activities of splenic B lymphocytes, CD4+
and CD8+ T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells in mice.
The results showed that B lymphocyte proliferation significantly
increased in hsBAFF-treated groups with dosages of 0.1 mg/kg
(p<0.05), 0.5 and 2 mg/kg (p<0.01). We observed a dose-dependent
increase of CD4+ T lymphocyte percentage and significantly
higher values in 0.5 and 2 mg/kg hsBAFF-treated groups (p<0.05
and p<0.001, respectively) compared to control group, but CD8+ T
lymphocyte percentage remained unchanged. The ratio of CD4+ to
CD8+ T lymphocytes rose with increasing hsBAFF dosage (p<0.05
for 2 mg/kg hsBAFF vs. control). Significantly stronger NK cell
activities were found in 0.5 and 2 mg/kg hsBAFF-treated groups
(p<0.05). The main finding of this study is that the hsBAFF can
enhance immune responses in the body by increasing B lymphocyte
and CD4+ T lymphocyte function as well as elevating NK cell
activity.
Key words
hsBAFF • B lymphocyte • CD4+ T lymphocyte • CD8+ T lymphocyte •
NK cell
|