Survival signaling in resting B cells

✍ Scribed by Alina Patke; Ingrid Mecklenbräuker; Alexander Tarakhovsky

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 112 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2004.01.007

✦ Synopsis

The survival of mature resting B cells in the periphery depends on signaling from the B-cell receptor (BCR) and the B-cell activating factor of the TNF family receptor (BAFF-R). Engagement of both receptors promotes NF-kB activity, which contributes to B-cell survival through different pathways. BCR signaling leads to activation of the inhibitor of NF-kB kinase (IKK) complex via Carma1, Bcl10 and MALT1, whereas BAFF-R engagement promotes processing of NF-kB2 protein p100, which is dependent on NF-kB-inducing kinase (NIK) and IKKa. Proximal signaling intermediates are potentially common to both pathways. We suggest that BCR and BAFF-R survival signaling are mutually dependent. In addition, we propose that BAFF-R signaling enhances the expression of survival genes through direct chromatin modifications in NF-kB target gene promoters.