Potential immunological adjuvant of `K'-type CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides enhanced the cell proliferation and IL-6 mRNA transcription in canine B cells.

CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODNs) are ligands for toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), signaling of which plays a role in innate immunity by inducing T helper 1 (TH1)-cell responses and pro-inflammatory cytokine production. The activation of TLR9 signaling is considered to be effective for the therapy of cancer, infectious diseases, and allergies and preclinical studies using CpG-ODNs have been performed in dogs and humans. In order to investigate the precise mechanisms responsible for the effect of CpG-ODNs in dogs, we examined their role in cell proliferation and cytokine gene expression in canine B cells. Canine B cells were collected by a magnetic cell isolation method using anti-CD21 antibody. Flow cytometric analysis for the intracellular CD79α revealed the purity of canine B cells to be as high as 90.2 ± 2.1%. Transcription of TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9 mRNA on canine CD21(+) cells was confirmed by reverse-transcript polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). CpG-ODNs induced dose-dependent proliferation of canine CD21(+) cells (P<0.05 compared with control-ODNs) detected by BrdU incorporation. Quantification of IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12p40 mRNA transcription on canine CD21(+) cells revealed that CpG-ODNs enhanced IL-6 mRNA transcription but not IL-10 and IL-12p40 mRNA transcription (P<0.05 compared with control-ODNs). These responses to CpG-ODNs in the canine B cells indicated that CpG-ODNs would be useful as an immunological adjuvant for vaccine in dogs.