Acute disruption of bone marrow B lymphopoiesis and apoptosis of transitional and marginal zone B cells in the spleen following a blood-stage plasmodium chabaudi infection in mice

B cells and antibodies are essential for the protective immune response against a blood-stage plasmodium infection. although extensive research has focused on memory as well as plasma b-cell responses during infection,little is known about how malaria affects b-cell development and splenic maturation into marginal zone b (mzb) and follicular b (fob) cells. in this study,we show that acute plasmodium chabaudi as infection in c57bl/6 mice causes severe disruption of b lymphopoiesis in the bone marrow,affecting in particular pro-,pre-,and immature b cells as well as the expression of the bone marrow b-cell retention chemokine cxcl12. in addition,elevated apoptosis of transitional t2 and marginal zone (mz) b cells was observed during and subsequent to the control of the first wave of parasitemia. in contrast,folllicular (fo) b cells levels were retained in the spleen throughout the infection,suggesting that these are essential for parasite clearance and proper infection control. copyright © 2011 viki bockstal et al.