Defective B cell responses in the absence of SH2D1A

More than half of patients with X-linked lympho-proliferative disease, which is caused by a defect in the intracellular adapter protein SH2D1A, suffer from an extreme susceptibility to Epstein-Barr virus. One-third of these patients, however, develop dysgammaglobulenemia without an episode of severe mononucleosis. Here we show that inSH2D1A-/-mice, both primary and secondary responses of all Ig subclasses are severely impaired in response to specific antigens. Because germinal centers were absent inSH2D1A-/-mice upon primary immunization, and because SH2D1A was detectable inwtgerminal center B cells, we examined whetherSH2D1A-/-B cell functions were impaired. Using the adoptive cotransfer of B lymphocytes from hapten-primedSH2D1A-/-mice with CD4+T cells from primedwtmice into irradiatedwtmice provided evidence that signal transduction events controlled by SH2D1A are essential for B cell activities resulting in antigen specific IgG production. Defects in naïveSH2D1A-/-B cells became evident upon cotransfer with non-primedwtCD4+cells intoRag2-/-recipients. Thus, both defective T and B cells exist in the absence of SH2D1A, which may explain the progressive dysgammaglobulinemia in a subset of X-linked lympho-proliferative disease patients without involvement of Epstein-Barr virus.