Gene expression analysis of FO B and ABCs of young and aged mice.

We report the global gene expression in follicular (FO) B cells and age/autoimmunity-associated B cells (ABCs). We found that Fc-receptor like (Fcrl) 5 was highly expressed in ABCs isolated from 50-week-old mice, compared to FO B cells. This study provides a basis for understanding the relationship between autoimmune diseases and Fcrl5 expression in B cells. Overall design: To investigate gene expression pattern of ABCs, we isolated FO B cells either from 8- and 50-wk-old mice and ABCs from 50-wk-old mice by FACS staining. These B cell subsets were subjected to generate cDNA libraries for RNA-seq analysis. We then performed comparative gene expression analysis to identify the characteristics of gene expression shaped in ABCs.