The role of RasGRPs in regulation of lymphocyte proliferation

RasGRP1 links TCR signaling to Ras in T cells, while both RasGRP1 and RasGRP3 link BCR signaling to Ras in B cells. T cells deficient in RasGRP1 have defective proliferative responses as do B cells deficient in both RasGRP1 and RasGRP3, confirming the importance of Ras activation in lymphocyte proliferation. While aged Rasgrp1−/− mice develop late-onset autoimmunity characterized by splenomegaly and the presence of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), the additional loss of RasGRP3 expression inhibits this phenotype. We show here that the autoimmunity in Rasgrp1−/− mice is T cell dependent. Compared to wildtype, Rasgrp1−/− T cells induce greater in vitro B cell proliferation that is due, at least in part, to increased production of interleukin-4 (IL-4). Rasgrp1 Rasgrp3 double mutant B cells are less responsive to this T cell stimulation. The reduced double mutant B cell proliferative response was paralleled by decreased induction of cyclin D2 upon stimulation with IL-4 and anti-IgM. Taken together these results suggest that double mutant mice fail to generate autoimmunity due to their decreased B cell cyclin D2 accumulation, and thus proliferation, in response to the elevated levels of IL-4 produced by mutant T cells.