Feedback suppression of B cell colony formation in healthy individuals.

Proliferation and differentiation of B cells has been extensively studied and the study of feedback suppression of B cell proliferation has been limited to humoral factors. However, very little is known about feedback suppression of B cell proliferation by cellular influences. We have previously reported on the role of T cells and their subsets on B cell proliferation in that we did not observe suppression of B cell colony growth by T cells. We now report on the role of B cells in limiting B cell proliferation. B cell colonies were grown in methyl cellulose for either 3 days or 5-6 days utilizing 2 x 10(5) T cells irradiated with 9,000 rads, and 2 x 10(5) B cells. The B cells were then obtained from these colonies and increasing numbers of cells were added to fresh autologous B cells that were further cultured for 5 days to form new B cell colonies. At the end of this period, B cell colony numbers were determined. Our data show that addition of CD19- and CD20- positive B cells recovered from mature colonies after 5 days to fresh B cells suppressed further B cell colony growth in all cases tested, whereas addition of CD19-positive B cells recovered from immature colonies after 3 days of culture did not suppress further B cell colony growth. Elimination of CD 19- or CD20-positive cells with monoclonal antibody to CD19 and complement or by the technique of panning enhanced colony growth. Supernatants obtained from B cell colonies did not suppress B cell colony formation. Our data suggest that there is feedback suppression of normal progenitor B cell proliferation by constituent B cells and that this effect develops during maturation of colonies during the growth phase.