| First Author | Boulianne B | Year | 2013 |
| Journal | J Immunol | Volume | 191 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | 5840-7 |
| PubMed ID | 24244021 | Mgi Jnum | J:207109 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5554474 | Doi | 10.4049/jimmunol.1301776 |
| Citation | Boulianne B, et al. (2013) AID and caspase 8 shape the germinal center response through apoptosis. J Immunol 191(12):5840-7 |
| abstractText | Germinal centers (GCs) are clusters of activated B cells that form in secondary lymphoid organs during a T-dependent immune response. B cells enter GCs and become rapidly proliferating centroblasts that express the enzyme activation-induced deaminase (AID) to undergo somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination. Centroblasts then mature into centrocytes to undergo clonal selection. Within the GC, the highest affinity B cell clones are selected to mature into memory or plasma cells while lower affinity clones undergo apoptosis. We reported previously that murine Aicda(-/-) GC B cells have enhanced viability and accumulate in GCs. We now show that murine Aicda(-/-) GC B cells accumulate as centrocytes and inefficiently generate plasma cells. The reduced rate of plasma cell formation was not due to an absence of AID-induced DNA lesions. In addition, we show that the deletion of caspase 8 specifically in murine GC-B cells results in larger GCs and a delay in affinity maturation, demonstrating the importance of apoptosis in GC homeostasis and clonal selection. |
