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Original Article

Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase Links the B Cell Receptor to Nuclear Factor b Activation

^a Department of Pathology and Program in Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts 02111
^b Rosenstiel Research Center and Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254
Dept. of Pathology and Program in Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Boston, MA 02111.617-636-2990617-636-6718

hwortis_sup{at}opal.tufts.edu

The recognition of antigen by membrane immunoglobulin M (mIgM) results in a complex series of signaling events in the cytoplasm leading to gene activation. Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a member of the Tec family of tyrosine kinases, is essential for the full repertoire of IgM signals to be transduced. We examined the ability of BTK to regulate the nuclear factor (NF)-B/Rel family of transcription factors, as the activation of these factors is required for a B cell response to mIgM. We found greatly diminished IgM- but not CD40-mediated NF-B/Rel nuclear translocation and DNA binding in B cells from X-linked immunodeficient (xid) mice that harbor an R28C mutation in btk, a mutation that produces a functionally inactive kinase. The defect was due, in part, to a failure to fully degrade the inhibitory protein of NF-B, IB. Using a BTK-deficient variant of DT40 chicken B cells, we found that expression of wild-type or gain-of-function mutant BTK, but not the R28C mutant, reconstituted NF-B activity. Thus, BTK is essential for activation of NF-B via the B cell receptor.

Key Words: X-linked immunodeficiency • CD40 • B cell receptor • B cell activation • transcription factor

Abbreviations used in this paper: BCR, B cell receptor for antigen; BTK, Bruton's tyrosine kinase; EMSAs, electrophoretic mobility shift assays; GFP, green fluorescent protein; mIgM, membrane IgM; NF-B, nuclear factor B; PH, pleckstrin homology; PKC, protein kinase C; PLC-2, phospholipase C2; SH, Src homology; xid, X-linked immunodeficiency; XLA, X-linked agammaglobulinemia.

© 2000 The Rockefeller University Press

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