Responsiveness of lymphoid precursors to polyclonal B-cell activators.

We have shown previously that in the differentiation of fetal liver cells to mature B cells in irradiated hosts, these cells sequentially gain responsiveness to the polyclonal B-cell activators dextran-sulphate (DxS), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and purified protein derivative from tuberculin (PPD), in that order. In this paper we show that both fetal liver cells and adult bone marrow cells responded with proliferation to DxS, but not to LPS OR PPD. However, neither fetal liver nor bone marrow cells gave rise to detectable numbers of high-rate antibody-secreting cells on short-term stimulation by polyclonal B-cell activators. The lack of LPS and and PPD responses of fetal liver and bone marrow cells could not be ascribed to the presence of inhibitory cells, and the DxS-induced response in these cell populations was not dependent on adherent cells. However, LPS could inhibit the DxS response of fetal liver cells, possibly indicating that DxS-responsive cells are precursors to B cells. Direct evidence was provided that DxS activated B-cell precursors in bone marrow. Thus, this cell population became responsive to LPS after DxS prestimulation, as measured by DNA synthesis. Bone marrow cells, sequentially stimulated with DxS and LPS, contained increased numbers of cells with surface immunoglobulin, although no significant increase in numbers of antibody-secreting cells was obtained. These data indicate that DxS had the capacity to increase the rate of differentiation of B-cell precursors. Finally, we show that the sequential appearance of responsiveness in B-cell differentiation to polyclonal B-cell activators is not due to lack of accessory cells during early stages in maturation.