Lymphocyte development and in vitro CSR were performed as described before (10 (link),31 (link),32 ). Hematopoietic cells from 5–8 week mice were stained and analyzed on a FACS Calibur flow cytometer (BD Biosciences). The antibodies are: PE-CD4 (clone GK1.5, BD Pharmingen, 553730), FITC-CD8α (clone 53–6.7, BioLegend, 100705), APC-TCRβ (clone H57-597, BD Pharmingen, 553174), PE/Cy7 TER-119 (clone TER-119, BioLegend, 116222), FITC-CD43 (clone S7, BD Pharmingen, 553270), PE-Cy5-B220 (clone RA3-6B2, BD Pharmingen, 553091) and PE-IgM (Southern Biotech, 1020-09). For in vitro CSR, CD43 splenic cells (anti-CD43 magnetic beads, Miltenyi, 130-049-801) were cultured (~1 × 106 cells ml−1) in RPMI (Gibco, 11875-093), serum supplements (10 (link),31 (link),32 ), IL-4 (20 ng/mL; R&D, 404-ML-050), and anti-CD40 (1 μg/mL; BD Bioscience, 553721) and analyses with FITC-conjugated IgG1 (clone A85-1, BD Pharmingen, 553443) and PECy5-conjugated B220 (clone RA3-6B2, BD Pharmingen, 553091). FlowJo software package was used for data analyses