Gene expression analysis of Unstimulated follicular B cells and follicular B cells stimulated with IFNa, CpG and CpG plus IFNa.

We report the grobal gene expression in follicular (FO) B cells stimulated with CpG, IFNa, and CpG plus IFNa for 12 hours prior to the onset of PC differentiation. We found that stimulation with CpG plus IFNa upregulates metabolic processes compared to stimulation with CpG alone. This study highlight the pivotal role of IFNa in determining the fate of PC differentiation of TLR9-activated FO B cells. Overall design: To examine gene expression patterns of FO B cells stimulated with CpG+IFNa, which induces plasma differentiation, FO B cells from 10-week-old mice were isolated by FACS staining. These B cell subsets were stimulated with IFNa, CpG, and CpG plus IFNa for 12 hours and then submitted to a cDNA library for RNA-seq analysis along with unstimulated FO B cells. We then performed comparative gene expression analysis to identify the characteristics of gene expression shaped in FO B cells stimulated with CpG plus IFNa.