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Allergy

Lung-resident memory B cells class-switch to IgE

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 25, page 315 (2025)Cite this article

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IgE specific for inhaled allergens mediates airway hypersensitivity in asthma, a chronic condition with intermittent symptoms driven by allergen re-exposure. However, IgE-expressing B cells fail to form memory B cells (MBCs) and long-lived IgE+ plasma cells are rare. In addition, systemic, allergen-specific IgE responses are absent in some individuals with asthma. Thus, how allergen-specific IgE responses in the lung are maintained long term is unclear. Nelson et al. report in Immunity that lung-resident IgG1+ MBCs undergo class-switch recombination (CSR) promoted by T helper 2 (TH2) cells to mediate local IgE responses.

To investigate class-switching to IgE, the authors used Iε-tdTomato mice, which report germline transcription at the Iε locus, a prerequisite for IgE CSR. After 3 weeks of exposure to RWP plus OVA and then OVA alone, the frequency of Iε-tdTomato+ B cells was higher in lung tissue than in lung-draining lymph nodes or spleen, which suggests that B cells in the lungs were stimulated to undergo IgE CSR locally. In keeping with this, use of an S1PR1 agonist to inhibit lymphocyte egress from lymphoid tissues did not reduce the number of Iε-tdTomato+ B cells in lung tissue.

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  1. Nature Reviews Immunology http://www.nature.com/nri/

    Kirsty Minton

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  1. Kirsty Minton
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Correspondence to Kirsty Minton.

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Minton, K. Lung-resident memory B cells class-switch to IgE. Nat Rev Immunol 25, 315 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01169-y

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