High-dimensional immune profiling of total and rotavirus VP6-specific intestinal and circulating B cells by mass cytometry

In-depth phenotyping of human intestinal antibody secreting cells (ASCs) and their precursors is important for developing improved mucosal vaccines. We used single-cell mass cytometry to simultaneously analyze 34 differentiation and trafficking markers on intestinal and circulating B cells. In addition, we labeled rotavirus double-layered particles with a metal isotope and characterized B cells specific to the rotavirus VP6 major structural protein. We describe the heterogeneity of the intestinal B cell compartment, dominated by ASCs with some phenotypic and transcriptional characteristics of long-lived plasma cells. Using principal component analysis, we visualized the phenotypic relationships between major B cell subsets in the intestine and blood, and revealed that IgM(+) memory B cells (MBCs) and naïve B cells were phenotypically related as were CD27(−) MBCs and switched MBCs. ASCs in the intestine and blood were highly clonally related, but associated with distinct trajectories of phenotypic development. VP6-specific B cells were present among diverse B cell subsets in immune donors, including naïve B cells, with phenotypes representative of the overall B cell pool. These data provide a high dimensional view of intestinal B cells and the determinants regulating humoral memory to a ubiquitous, mucosal pathogen at steady-state.