Different B Cell Populations Mediate Early and Late Memory During an Endogenous Immune Response

作者：Pape Kathryn A; Taylor Justin J; Maul Robert W; Gearhart Patricia J; Jenkins Marc K^*

来源：Science, 2011, 331(6021): 1203-1207.

DOI：10.1126/science.1201730

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.

• 出版日期2011-3-4