| First Author | Quah BJ | Year | 2008 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 11 | Pages | 4259-64 |
| PubMed ID | 18337504 | Mgi Jnum | J:173514 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5014168 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.0800259105 |
| Citation | Quah BJ, et al. (2008) Bystander B cells rapidly acquire antigen receptors from activated B cells by membrane transfer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(11):4259-64 |
| abstractText | The B cell antigen receptor (BCR) efficiently facilitates the capture and processing of a specific antigen for presentation on MHC class II molecules to antigen-specific CD4(+) T cells (1). Despite this, the majority of B cells are thought to play only a limited role in CD4(+) T cell activation because BCRs are clonotypically expressed. Here, we show, however, that activated B cells can, both in vitro and in vivo, rapidly donate their BCR to bystander B cells, a process that is mediated by direct membrane transfer between adjacent B cells and is amplified by the interaction of the BCR with a specific antigen. This results in a dramatic expansion in the number of antigen-binding B cells in vivo, with the transferred BCR endowing recipient B cells with the ability to present a specific antigen to antigen-specific CD4(+) T cells. |
