HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tsai, C.-M. Articles by Lin, K.-I Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Tsai, C.-M. Articles by Lin, K.-I Pubmed/NCBI databases Gene GEO Profiles HomoloGene UniGene Substance via MeSH

Galectin-1 Promotes Immunoglobulin Production during Plasma Cell Differentiation¹

Chih-Ming Tsai^*,, Yi-Kai Chiu^*,, Tsui-Ling Hsu, I-Ying Lin, Shie-Liang Hsieh^*, and Kuo-I Lin^2,

^* Institute and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; and Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Galectin-1, a β-galactoside-binding soluble lectin, has been implicated in regulating immune system homeostasis. We investigated the function of galectin-1 in plasma cell differentiation and found that it is induced in primary murine and human differentiating B cells. B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein-1 (Blimp-1), a master regulator for plasma cell differentiation, was necessary and sufficient to induce galectin-1 expression. Notably, ectopic expression of galectin-1 in mature B cells increased Ig µ-chain transcript levels as well as the overall level of Ig production. This function of galectin-1 was dependent on binding to cell surface glycosylated counter receptors, as a galectin-1 mutant deficient in β-galactoside binding showed diminished ability to promote Ig production. Extracellular galectin-1 bound more significantly to mature B cells than to plasma cells. Lastly, we found that the sugar compound N-acetyllactosamine blocked the binding of galectin-1 to murine splenic B cells and inhibited their differentiation. Taken together, these data are the first to demonstrate a role for galectin-1 in promoting Ig production during plasma cell differentiation.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ This work was supported by Academia Sinica (to K.L.) and by National Health Research Institutes Grant NHRI-EX95, 96, 97-9509NC (to K.L.).

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Kuo-I Lin, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang District, Taipei 115, Taiwan. E-mail address: kuoilin{at}gate.sinica.edu.tw

³ Abbreviations used in this paper: PS, phosphatidylserine; Blimp-1, B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein-1; Gal-1, galectin-1; GlcNAc, N-acetylglucosamine; KO, knockout; LacNAc, N-acetyllactosamine; µm, membrane form of µ-chain transcript; µs, secreted form of µ-chain transcript; PPIA, peptidylprolyl isomerase A; QPCR, quantitative PCR; 7-AAD, 7-aminoactinomycin D; YFP, yellow fluorescent protein.