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B-cell memory: are subsets necessary?

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 6, pages 785–790 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

B-cell memory is provided by populations of quiescent memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells. Whereas it is clear that both of these cell populations arise from germinal centres, the signals and circumstances that trigger germinal-centre B cells to enter and then persist in memory compartments are poorly defined. Here, I propose that germinal centres produce memory B cells and plasma cells throughout the immune response and that memory B cells arise by the emigration of B cells that are chosen at random from the pool available in the germinal centre. The ability of such emigrants to survive as memory B cells depends on their germinal-centre 'history', with the persistence of high-affinity B-cell variants being favoured.

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Figure 1: The formation of B-cell memory in response to antigen.
Figure 2: A model for the generation of memory B cells and plasma cells in germinal centres during a primary immune response.

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Acknowledgements

I thank current and previous members of my laboratory who have worked on this problem. I am also grateful to the other members of the B-cell Program for fruitful and stimulating discussions. D.T. is supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia).

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  1. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, 3050, VIC, Australia

    David Tarlinton

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Tarlinton, D. B-cell memory: are subsets necessary?. Nat Rev Immunol 6, 785–790 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1938

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