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Analyzing Mouse B Cell Responses Specific to LCMV Infection

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B Cell Receptor Signaling

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1707))

Abstract

B cell responses play a central role in humoral immunity, which protects an individual from invading pathogens by antigen-specific antibodies. Understanding the basic principles of the B cell responses during viral infection is of substantial importance for anti-viral vaccine development. In inbred mice, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection elicits robust and typical T cell-dependent B cell responses, including germinal center reaction, memory B cell formation, and a long-lived plasma cell pool in bone marrow. Therefore, this system represents an ideal model to investigate anti-viral B cell responses. In this protocol, we describe how to propagate and quantify LCMV and successfully establish an acute LCMV infection in mice. This protocol also provides three different techniques to analyze B cell responses specific to an acute LCMV infection: the identification of germinal center (GC) B cells and follicular helper CD4 T (TFH) cells from the spleens and lymph nodes via flow cytometry, titration of LCMV-specific IgG in the serum after LCMV infection using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis, and detection of LCMV-IgG secreted plasma cells from bone marrow with an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Rafi Ahmed (Emory University) for generously providing us with LCMV Armstrong virus. The work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, 2013CB531500, to L.Y.), the National Natural Science Foundation China (81471624 to L.Y.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Immunology, Third Military Medical University, Gaotanyan, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 400038, China

    Yaxing Hao, Zhirong Li, Yifei Wang, Xiaobing Liu & Lilin Ye

  2. The First Affiliated Hospital, Biomedical Translational Research Institute and, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Yifei Wang

Authors
  1. Yaxing Hao
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  2. Zhirong Li
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  3. Yifei Wang
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  4. Xiaobing Liu
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  5. Lilin Ye
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lilin Ye .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathogen Biology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong, China

    Chaohong Liu

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Hao, Y., Li, Z., Wang, Y., Liu, X., Ye, L. (2018). Analyzing Mouse B Cell Responses Specific to LCMV Infection. In: Liu, C. (eds) B Cell Receptor Signaling. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1707. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7474-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7474-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7473-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7474-0

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