Affinity maturation of antibody responses is mediated by differential plasma cell proliferation.

ABSTRACT: Increased antibody affinity over time after vaccination, known as affinity maturation, is a prototypical feature of immune responses. Recent studies have shown that a diverse collection of B cells, producing antibodies with a wide spectrum of different affinities, is selected into the plasma cell (PC) pathway. How affinity-permissive selection enables PC affinity maturation remains unknown. We found that PC precursors (prePCs) expressing high-affinity antibodies received higher levels of T follicular helper cell (T_FH cell)-derived help and divided at higher rates compared with their lower-affinity counterparts once they left the germinal center. Our findings indicate that differential cell division by selected prePCs accounts for how diverse precursors develop into a PC compartm

SUBMITTER: MacLean AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11938350 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature