1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 Cedar Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA

Correspondence to: Ruslan Medzhitov¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.M. (Email: ruslan.medzhitov@yale.edu).

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) detect microbial infection and have an essential role in the induction of immune responses^{1, 2, 3}. TLRs can directly induce innate host defence responses, but the mechanisms of TLR-mediated control of adaptive immunity are not fully understood. Although TLR-induced dendritic cell maturation is required for activation of T-helper (T_H) cells⁴, the role of TLRs in B-cell activation and antibody production in vivo is not yet known. Here we show that activation and differentiation of T_H cells is not sufficient for the induction of T-dependent B-cell responses. We find that, in addition to CD4⁺ T-cell help, generation of T-dependent antigen-specific antibody responses requires activation of TLRs in B cells.

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