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The human spleen is a major reservoir for long-lived vaccinia virus–specific memory B cells
- Source :
- Blood; May 2008, Vol. 111 Issue: 9 p4653-4659, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- The fact that you can vaccinate a child at 5 years of age and find lymphoid B cells and antibodies specific for this vaccination 70 years later remains an immunologic enigma. It has never been determined how these long-lived memory B cells are maintained and whether they are protected by storage in a special niche. We report that, whereas blood and spleen compartments present similar frequencies of IgG+ cells, antismallpox memory B cells are specifically enriched in the spleen where they account for 0.24% of all IgG+ cells (ie, 10-20 million cells) more than 30 years after vaccination. They represent, in contrast, only 0.07% of circulating IgG+ B cells in blood (ie, 50-100 000 cells). An analysis of patients either splenectomized or rituximab-treated confirmed that the spleen is a major reservoir for long-lived memory B cells. No significant correlation was observed between the abundance of these cells in blood and serum titers of antivaccinia virus antibodies in this study, including in the contrasted cases of B cell– depleting treatments. Altogether, these data provide evidence that in humans, the two arms of B-cell memory—long-lived memory B cells and plasma cells—have specific anatomic distributions—spleen and bone marrow—and homeostatic regulation.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00064971 and 15280020
- Volume :
- 111
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- Supplemental Index
- Journal :
- Blood
- Publication Type :
- Periodical
- Accession number :
- ejs52944363
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2007-11-123844