Transcriptional profiling of murine normal germinal center B cells (YFPstopF/+; Cg1Cre/+)

Germinal center (GC) B cells have been presented as the cell-of-origin of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and these cells can be functionally targeted with the use of Cgamma1-cre mice (Cg1cre) in wich the expression of Cre recombinase is induced by transcription of the Ig gamma1 constant region gene segment. Here, we aimed to develop and characterize novel immunocompetent multi-lesion mouse models of DLBCL that, by triggering genetic alterations specifically in GC B cells, recapitulate relatively fast the molecular, cellular and tumor microenvironment of aggressive human DLBCL. RNAseq profiling of FACS-sorted reporter positive splenic B cells from DLBCL murine models (B220+GFP+ lymphoma cells) were compared to normal controls (B220+YFP+ GC B cells) during secondary immune response to sheep-red blood cells (SRBC) immunization (i.e. 10 days after second intraperitoneal immunization with SRBC, following a first immunization 20 days before).