Fig. 4: Ablation of RIF1 enhances plasma cell formation after immunization.

a Schematic representation of the NP-CGG immunization protocol and gating strategy employed for the phenotypic analysis of the plasma cell compartment. d: day; NP CGG: 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetyl hapten conjugated to Chicken Gamma Globulin; Sp: spleen; BM: bone marrow; ASC: antibody secreting cell; PC: plasma cell. b Top: Representative flow cytometry plots measuring percentage of antibody secreting cells and plasma cells in spleens and bone marrows of Cd19^Cre/+ and Rif1^F/FCd19^Cre/+ mice at the indicated days after immunization. Bottom: Summary graphs for n = nine Rif1^F/FCd19^Cre/+ mice at d7, eight Cd19^Cre/+ at d28, seven Rif1^F/FCd19^Cre/+ at d14 and d28, six Cd19^Cre/+ at d7 and six Cd19^Cre/+ at d14 in at least three independent experiments. c Left: Representative ELISpot analysis of NP-specific IgM ASCs in the BM at the indicated times after immunization. Right: Summary graph showing the number of NP-specific IgM ASCs per 5 × 106 BM cells for n = eight Cd19^Cre/+ mice at d28, seven Rif1^F/FCd19^Cre/+ at d7 and d28, six Rif1^F/FCd19^Cre/+ at d14, and four Cd19^Cre/+ at d7 and d14 in at least three independent experiments. Significance in panels b and c was calculated with a two-sided Mann–Whitney U test. ns: not significant. Data in panel b are presented as mean values ± SD whereas the graph in panel (c) shows the median of each dataset. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Created in BioRender. Di virgilio, M. (2025) BioRender.com/i30o239.