The generation of antibody-secreting plasma cells

SL Nutt, PD Hodgkin, DM Tarlinton… - Nature Reviews …, 2015 - nature.com
Nature Reviews Immunology, 2015nature.com
The regulation of antibody production is linked to the generation and maintenance of
plasmablasts and plasma cells from their B cell precursors. Plasmablasts are the rapidly
produced and short-lived effector cells of the early antibody response, whereas plasma cells
are the long-lived mediators of lasting humoral immunity. An extraordinary number of control
mechanisms, at both the cellular and molecular levels, underlie the regulation of this
essential arm of the immune response. Despite this complexity, the terminal differentiation of …
Abstract
The regulation of antibody production is linked to the generation and maintenance of plasmablasts and plasma cells from their B cell precursors. Plasmablasts are the rapidly produced and short-lived effector cells of the early antibody response, whereas plasma cells are the long-lived mediators of lasting humoral immunity. An extraordinary number of control mechanisms, at both the cellular and molecular levels, underlie the regulation of this essential arm of the immune response. Despite this complexity, the terminal differentiation of B cells can be described as a simple probabilistic process that is governed by a central gene-regulatory network and modified by environmental stimuli.
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