Pre-B cell receptor expression is necessary for thymic stromal lymphopoietin responsiveness in the bone marrow but not in the liver environment.

IL-7 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) are two major cytokines controlling murine B cell development. IL-7 has been studied extensively, but only recently has it become possible to unravel the role of TSLP in detail. We studied the biological activities of TSLP in B cell development at distinct ages in the mouse. On the one hand, TSLP is able to give rise to a measurable B1 cell compartment derived from fetal liver pro-B cells, although, as is the case for B2 cells, it does not play a prevalent role in the development of this subset. On the other hand, TSLP drives the proliferation of pro-B cells from the fetal and neonatal liver, but in the bone marrow environment, B cell precursors require pre-B cell receptor expression for TSLP responsiveness.