Autoreactive Preplasma Cells Break Tolerance in the Absence of Regulation by Dendritic Cells and Macrophages

The ability to induce antibody responses to pathogens while maintaining the quiescence of autoreactive cells is an important aspect of immune tolerance. During activation of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4), dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages (MFs) repress autoantibody production through their secretion of IL-6 and soluble CD40L (sCD40L). These soluble mediators selectively repress B cells chronically exposed to antigen, but not naïve cells, suggesting a means to maintain tolerance during TLR4 stimulation, yet allow immunity. In this study, we identify TNFα as a third repressive factor, which together with IL-6 and CD40L, account for nearly all the repression conferred by DCs and MFs. Like IL-6 and sCD40L, TNFα did not alter B cell proliferation or survival. Rather, it reduced the number of antibody secreting cells. To address whether the soluble mediators secreted by DCs and MFs functioned in vivo, we generated mice lacking IL-6, CD40L and TNFα. Compared to wildtype mice, these mice showed prolonged anti-nuclear antibody responses following TLR4 stimulation. Further, adoptive transfer of autoreactive B cells into chimeric IL-6-/- × CD40L-/- × TNFα-/- mice showed that pre-plasma cells secreted autoantibodies independent of germinal center formation or extrafollicular foci. These data indicate that in the absence of genetic predisposition to autoimmunity, loss of endogenous IL-6, CD40L, and TNFα promotes autoantibody secretion during TLR4 stimulation