RNA sequencing analysis of mouse follicular B cells, memory B cells, plasmablasts and plasma cells

The purpose of this study was to compare relative mRNA transcript levels between mouse follicular B cells, memory B cells, plasmablasts and plasma cells. Overall design: Six different B cell subsets were purified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting in triplicate and processed for RNA sequencing. Follicular B cells (FO) were isolated from spleens of C57BL/6J female mice that had not been deliberately immunised. IgG1+ or IgM+ memory B cell (MBC) subsets were isolated from C57BL/6J female mice that had been immunised with 4-Hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetyl (NP) conjugated to chicken gamma globulin (CGG) in alum 35d prior to isolation of cells. Splenic plasmablasts (PB) and plasma cells (PC) and bone marrow PC were isolated from C57BL/6J-Blimp1GFP mice that had been immunised 35d earlier with NP-CGG in alum. Splenic germinal centre (GC) cells were isolated from C57BL/6J mice that had been immunised 10d earlier with NP-CGG in alum.