Examining the relationship between CD36 and T-bet expression in B cells.

---

Presentation Time: 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
Poster Board Number: B729
Abstract ID: 4467

Presenting Author:
Andrea Paredes , Undergraduate Researcher at St. Mary's Univ.

Abstract:

In states of chronic inflammation, a subset of B cells exquisitely responsive to nucleic acid antigen and expressing the pro-inflammatory transcription factor T-bet have been found to accumulate. Depending on the context, these T-bet+ B cells can play both protective and pathogenic roles, from enhancing antiviral defenses to contributing to autoreactive antibody production and exacerbating metabolic disease. Recently, our laboratory and others have found that T-bet+ B cells extracted from human or murine tissues exhibit unusually high expression of the class B scavenger receptor and fatty acid translocase CD36. As CD36 expression in B cells is typically limited to specific subsets, its presence on these T-bet+ B cells raises questions about its role in promoting pathogenic B cell responses. Here, we used flow cytometry to investigate the relationship between T-bet and CD36 expression in B cells stimulated with the TLR7/8 agonist R848. We found that in vitro stimulation of murine splenocytes with R848 increased both T-bet and CD36 expression in B cells. Moreover, T-bet expressing B cells generated in vitro consistently exhibited higher CD36 levels compared to their T-bet- counterparts. Subsequent in vivo studies will utilize mice with B-cell-specific deletions of either CD36 or T-bet to examine the relationship between CD36 and T-bet in B cells, and the implications of this relationship on B cell function and metabolism.