Different B cell populations mediate early and late memory during an endogenous immune response

Kathryn A Pape, Justin J. Taylor, Robert W. Maul, Patricia J. Gearhart, Marc Jenkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

444 Scopus citations

Abstract

Memory B cells formed in response to microbial antigens provide immunity to later infections; however, the inability to detect rare endogenous antigen-specific cells limits current understanding of this process. Using an antigen-based technique to enrich these cells, we found that immunization with a model protein generated B memory cells that expressed isotype-switched immunoglobulins (swIg) or retained IgM. The more numerous IgM+ cells were longer lived than the swIg+ cells. However, swIg+ memory cells dominated the secondary response because of the capacity to become activated in the presence of neutralizing serum immunoglobulin. Thus, we propose that memory relies on swIg+ cells until they disappear and serum immunoglobulin falls to a low level, in which case memory resides with durable IgM+ reserves.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1203-1207
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume331
Issue number6021
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 4 2011

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