A System for In Vitro Generation of Mature Murine Plasma Cells Uncovers Differential Blimp-1/Prdm1 Promoter Usage

Upon encounter with Ag, B cells undergo a sequential process of differentiation to become Ab-secreting plasma cells. Although the key drivers of differentiation have been identified, research has been limited by the lack of in vitro models recapitulating the full process for murine B cells. In this study, we describe methodology using BCR or TLR ligation to obtain plasma cells that are phenotypically mature, have exited cell cycle and express a gene signature concordant with long-lived plasma cells. Dependent on the initial stimuli, the transcriptomes also show variation including the enhanced expression of matrisome components after BCR stimulation, suggestive of unique functional properties for the resultant plasma cells. Moreover, using the new culture conditions we demonstrate that alternative promoter choice regulating the expression of the master transcription factor Blimp-1/Prdm1 can be observed; when the canonical B cell promoter for Prdm1 is deleted, differentiating B cells exhibit flexibility in the choice of promoter, dictated by the initiating stimulus, with preferential maintenance of expression following exposure to TLR ligation. Thus our system provides a readily tractable model for furthering our understanding of plasma cell biology.