The use of anti-B cell based therapies in immune-mediated diseases targeting general B cell markers or molecules important for B cell function has increased the clinical needs of monitoring B cell subpopulations. We analyzed the expression profile of cell surface markers CD86 and B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) in B cell subtypes using flow cytometry, including naïve, transitional, switched memory, non-switched memory and double-negative memory B cells and plasmablasts, and investigated the dependence of age and sex in a healthy adult blood donor population. The switched memory B cell subtype displayed a divergent expression of the markers, with increased CD86 and decreased BTLA as compared to non-switched and double negative memory cells, as well as compared to naïve B cells. Plasmablasts expressed highly increased CD86 compared to all other subtypes and a decreased expression of BTLA compared to naïve cells, but still higher compared to the memory cell populations. Transitional B cells had CD86 and BTLA expression similar to the other naïve cells. We show divergent expression of CD86 and BTLA in memory cells and plasmablasts compared to naïve B cells independent of age and sex. Furthermore, a similarly divergent difference of expression pattern was seen between the memory cell subtypes, altogether indicating that the combination of CD86 and BTLA might be markers for a permissive activation state. We suggest the combination of CD86 and BTLA expression on B cell subtypes as a potentially important tool in monitoring the status of B cell subtypes before and after treatments influencing the B cell compartment.

中文翻译：

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激活标记CD86与免疫检查点标记B和T淋巴细胞减毒剂（BTLA）的组合表明健康献血者中B细胞亚型的假定的许可激活状态，与年龄和性别无关。

在针对一般B细胞标记或对B细胞功能重要的分子的免疫介导疾病中使用基于抗B细胞的疗法增加了监测B细胞亚群的临床需求。我们使用流式细胞仪分析了B细胞亚型中细胞表面标志物CD86和B和T淋巴细胞减毒剂（BTLA）的表达谱，包括幼稚，过渡，开关记忆，非开关记忆和双阴性记忆B细胞和浆母细胞，以及研究了健康成年献血者年龄和性别的依赖性。与未切换和双重阴性记忆细胞相比，与未处理的B细胞相比，切换的记忆B细胞亚型表现出不同的标志物表达，CD86增加且BTLA降低。与所有其他亚型相比，成浆细胞表达的CD86高度增加，而与幼稚细胞相比，成纤维细胞的BTLA表达降低，但与记忆细胞群体相比仍更高。过渡性B细胞的CD86和BTLA表达与其他幼稚细胞相似。我们显示，与年龄和性别无关的幼稚B细胞相比，CD86和BTLA在记忆细胞和成浆细胞中表达不同。此外，在记忆细胞亚型之间观察到类似的表达模式差异，共同表明CD86和BTLA的组合可能是允许激活状态的标志。我们建议将CD86和BTLA表达结合在B细胞亚型上，作为监测影响B细胞区室的治疗前后B细胞亚型状态的潜在重要工具。