Antibody Affinity Shapes the Choice between Memory and Germinal Center B Cell Fates
Open accessAbstract
Immunological memory is required for protection against repeated infections and is the basis of all effective vaccines. Antibodies produced by memory B cells play an essential role in many of these responses. We have combined lineage tracing with antibody cloning from single B cells to examine the role of affinity in B cell selection into germinal centers (GCs) and the memory B cell compartment in mice immunized with an HIV-1 antigen. We find that contemporaneously developing memory and GC B cells differ in their affinity for antigen throughout the immune response. Whereas GC cells and their precursors are enriched in antigen binding, memory B cells are not. Thus, the polyclonal memory B cell compartment is composed of B cells that were activated during the immune response but whose antigen binding affinity failed to support further clonal expansion in the GC.
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Persistent clones expand without accumulating large numbers of additional mutations, indicating that clonal expansion of human memory B cells does not require re-entry into germinal centres and occurs in the activated B cell compartment.
“The persistent clones expand without accumulating large numbers of additional mutations, indicating that clonal expansion of human memory B cells does not require re-entry into germinal centres and occurs in the activated B cell compartment17,27–31.”
From Naturally enhanced neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 one year after infection (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
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References 59 · Cited by 233
- Authors
- Viant, C., Weymar, G. H. J., Escolano, A., Chen, S., Hartweger, H., Cipolla, M., Gazumyan, A., & Nussenzweig, M. C.
- Affiliations
- Rockefeller University (US)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nussenzweig, Michel C.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cell
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-11
- Volume
- 183
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1298-1311.e11
- ISSN
- 0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7722471
- OpenAlex
- W3096200200
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 11.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cell (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Rockefeller University
- National Institutes of Health (1P01AI138212, 1UM1AI144462-01, 5R37 AI037526, P01AI100148)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune responses and vaccinations
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
- Keywords
- antibody affinity, memory B cells, germinal center B cells, immunological memory, HIV-1 antigens, clonal expansion, antigen binding affinity, lineage tracing, B cell selection
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Antibody Affinity, Antigens, B-Lymphocytes, Humans, Immunization, Immunologic Memory, Mutation, Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell, Germinal Center, Mice, HEK293 Cells
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