DUAL ROLES OF GALECTIN-1 IN B CELL SURVIVAL AND PROLIFERATION

MARTINEZ ALLO V; CUTINE A; RABINOVICH GA; TOSCANO MA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXII REUNIÓN ANUAL Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología; 2014

During the past years, galectins, a family of glycan-binding proteins, have been implicated in several biological processes as regulators of the immune system. Particularly, galectin-1 (Gal1) has been implicated in the regulation of B cell physiology. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cells, Croci and colleagues found that, in the presence of Gal1, suboptimal concentrations of anti-IgM can fully activate the BCR signaling affecting survival, proliferation and trafficking of these cells. Based on these findings, we studied the role of Gal1 and its specific glycans in the survival and proliferation of normal B cells in the spleen. We found that recombinant Gal1 diminished B cell survival in vitro not only in purified B cells but also in splenocytes cultures. In addition, we observed a higher percentage of surviving B cells in cultures from mice deficient in Gal1 (Lgals1-/-) compared to WT mice (P