BCR repertoire analyis of class-switched and non-switched thymic B cells

We report that a large percentage of thymic B cells undergo class switching intrathymically. Thymic B cell class switching requires cognate T-B interaction. To determine whether B cell specificity was also important for thymic B cell class-switching, we sorted class-switched thymic B cells (CD19+B220+IgM-IgD-), unswitched B cells (CD19+B220+IgM+IgD+) and bulk splenic B cells in 3H9 heavy chain-fixed mice and performed high throughput sequencing analysis of the light chain of these populations. Results of this analysis indicated that class-switched thymic B cells have a distinct repertoire compared with unswitched thymic B cells and splenic B cells. Further reactivity tests indicated that a large part of BCRs enriched in class-switched thymic B cells are autoreactive. These data suggest that autoreactive B cells are selected into class-switched population and expanded in the thymus. Light chain repertoire profiles of class-switched thymic B cells, unswithced thymic B cells and splenic B cells from 3H9 mice were generated by deep sequencing.