Poster Presentation Australasian Society for Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting 2014

Dopamine within the germinal centre: a new ‘language’ between T and B cells (#367)

Ilenia Papa 1 , Maurilio Ponzoni 2 , Sonia Bustamante 3 , Rebecca Sweet 4 , Harpreet Vohra 1 , Naomi Williams 1 , Claudio Doglioni 2 , Carola Vinuesa 1
  1. John Curtin School of Medical Research - The Australian National University, Watson, ACT, Australia
  2. Pathology, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
  3. Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre The University of New South Wales , Sydney, NSW, Australia
  4. Immunology, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The germinal center (GC) is a unique structure that develops in secondary lymphoid organs during immune responses to protein antigens, where high affinity antibodies and memory B cells are generated. In order to ensure fast selection of rapidly-evolving clones in GC, follicular dendritic cells, GC B cells and T cells engage in multiple short-lived interactions. So far, only costimulatory or inhibitory membrane immune receptor/ligand pairs and cytokines have been investigated and are known to be involved in this process. The speed and complexity of cellular interactions in this microenvironment is reminiscent of cellular connections and synaptic communication within the nervous system. Furthermore, molecules involved in axon growth and guidance have been found to be differentially expressed within GC B cells, suggesting that a neural-like transmission pathways may also be involved in GC B cell selection. Here we show that a subset of germinal centre T cells contains chromogranin B+ electron-dense granules typically found in neurons, and catecholamines, such as dopamine and noradrenaline. In vitro stimulation of human B cell subsets with dopamine, shows this neurotransmistter influences survival, differentiation and proliferation of centrocytes and memory B cells. Chromogranin B+ GC T cells were significantly increased in several malignancies derived from follicular/germinal centre B cells. Our findings may provide additional avenues for the treatment of lymphoid malignancies.