Authors
Jennifer Gommerman and Jorg Fritz
Summary
The largest mucosal surface in the body is in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a location that is heavily colonized by normally harmless microbes. A key mechanism required for maintaining a homeostatic balance between this microbial burden and the lymphocytes that densely populate the GI tract is the production and trans-epithelial transport of poly-reactive IgA1. Within the mucosal tissues, B cells respond to cytokines, sometimes in the absence of T cell help, undergo class switch recombination (CSR) of their Immunoglobulin (Ig) receptors to IgA, and differentiate to become plasma cells (PC)2. However, IgA-secreting PC likely have additional attributes that are needed for coping with the tremendous bacterial load in the GI tract. We report that IgA+ PC also can produce the anti-microbial mediators TNFα and iNOS, which appear to arise in the unique environment of the gut, and may be critical to mount effective responses to microbial assault. Here we described a detailed method to characterize and quantify IgA+iNOS+TNFα+ cells that we called TNFα-iNOS-producing (Tip)-PC in the lamina propria of mice by immunohistochemistry (IHC).Further details
The protocol was published on Protocol Exchange on 16 December 2011. To see the entire protocol, click on the source link.Advertisement
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