Apurinic/Apyrimidinic Endonuclease 2 Regulates the Expansion of Germinal Centers by Protecting against Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase-Independent DNA Damage in B Cells

作者：Guikema Jeroen E J; Linehan Erin K; Esa Nada; Tsuchimoto Daisuke; Nakabeppu Yusaku; Woodland Robert T; Schrader Carol E^*

来源：The Journal of Immunology, 2014, 193(2): 931-939.

DOI：10.4049/jimmunol.1400002

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) initiates a process generating DNA mutations and breaks in germinal center (GC) B cells that are necessary for somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination. GC B cells can "tolerate" DNA damage while rapidly proliferating because of partial suppression of the DNA damage response by BCL6. In this study, we develop a model to study the response of mouse GC B cells to endogenous DNA damage. We show that the base excision repair protein apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE) 2 protects activated B cells from oxidative damage in vitro. APE2-deficient mice have smaller GCs and reduced Ab responses compared with wild-type mice. DNA double-strand breaks are increased in the rapidly dividing GC centroblasts of APE2-deficient mice, which activate a p53-independent cell cycle checkpoint and a p53-dependent apoptotic response. Proliferative and/or oxidative damage and AID-dependent damage are additive stresses that correlate inversely with GC size in wild-type, AID-, and APE2-deficient mice. Excessive double-strand breaks lead to decreased expression of BCL6, which would enable DNA repair pathways but limit GC cell numbers. These results describe a nonredundant role for APE2 in the protection of GC cells from AID-independent damage, and although GC cells uniquely tolerate DNA damage, we find that the DNA damage response can still regulate GC size through pathways that involve p53 and BCL6.

• 出版日期2014-7-15