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Brief Definitive Report |
Correspondence to: Douglas T. Fearon, Wellcome Trust Immunology Unit, MRC Centre, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2SP, UK. Tel:44-1223-330528 Fax:44-1223-336817 E-mail:dtf1000{at}cus.cam.ac.uk.
Lymphocytes usually differentiate into effector cells within days after antigen exposure, except in germinal centers where terminal differentiation is delayed while somatic hypermutation creates high-affinity antibody mutants. Here we investigate whether arrest of terminal differentiation can be mediated by BCL-6, a transcriptional repressor that is expressed by germinal center B cells and is required for this phase of B cell development. We find that BCL-6 suppresses the differentiation of transformed and primary B cells to plasma cells by inhibiting the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3dependent expression of the major regulator of plasma cell development, the B lymphocyteinduced maturation protein (Blimp-1). This function of BCL-6 as a repressor of B lymphocyte differentiation may also underlie the association between chromosomal translocations of its gene and B cell lymphomas.
Key Words: BTB-POZ protein, plasma cell, germinal center, retrovirus, interleukins
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