Enforced expression of EBF in hematopoietic stem cells restricts lymphopoiesis to the B cell lineage

Mice deficient in early B cell factor (EBF) are blocked at the progenitor B cell stage prior to immunoglobulin gene rearrangement. The EBF-dependent block in B cell development occurs near the onset of B-lineage commitment, which raises the possibility that EBF may act instructively to specify the B cell fate from uncommitted, multipotential progenitor cells. To test this hypothesis, we transduced enriched hematopoietic progenitor cells with a retroviral vector that coexpressed EBF and the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Mice reconstituted with EBF-expressing cells showed a near complete absence of T lymphocytes. Spleen and peripheral blood samples were >95 and 90% GFP ⁺EBF⁺ mature B cells, respectively. Both NK and lymphoid-derived dendritic cells were also significantly reduced compared with control-transplanted mice. These data suggest that EBF can restrict lymphopoiesis to the B cell lineage by blocking development of other lymphoid-derived cell pathways.