B-cell clonal diversification and gut-lymph node trafficking in ulcerative colitis revealed using lineage tree analysis

In studies of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), research has so far focused mainly on the role of T cells. Despite evidence suggesting that B cells and the production of auto-antibodies may play a significant role in IBD pathogenesis, the role of B cells in gut inflammation has not yet been thoroughly investigated. In the present study we used the new approach of lineage tree analysis for studying immunoglobulin variable region gene diversification in B cells found in the inflamed intestinal tissue of two ulcerative colitis patients as well as B cells from mucosa-associated lymph nodes (LN) in the same patients. Healthy intestinal tissue of three patients with carcinoma of the colon was used as normal control. Lineage tree shapes revealed active immune clonal diversification processes occurring in ulcerative colitis patients, which were quantitatively similar to those in healthy controls. B cells from intestinal tissues and the associated LN are shown here to be clonally related, thus supplying the first direct evidence supporting B-cell trafficking between gut and associated LN in IBD and control tissues.