Bone marrow basophils provide survival signals to immature B cells in vitro but are dispensable in vivo

Immature B cells are the first B cell progenitors to express a fully formed B cell receptor and are therefore subject to extensive selection processes that act to mitigate the emergence of autoreactive clones. While it is well appreciated that most B cell generation in the bone marrow is highly dependent on access to molecules present in the local milieu, the existence of extrinsically provided factors that modulate immature B cell biology is ambiguous. Nonetheless, a population of CD49b(+)CD90(lo) cells has demonstrated in vitro potential to promote immature B cell survival. Using a mouse basophil reporter strain we confirmed the identity of these CD49b(+)CD90(lo) supportive cells as basophils. However, analysis of bone marrow B cell populations following lineage specific basophil depletion demonstrates that basophils do not have a significant role in vivo in modulating immature B cell biology during steady-state conditions.