B-cell selection and tolerance

✍ Scribed by Gustav J.V. Nossal

• Book ID: 103972774
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 865 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/0952-7915(91)90049-7

✦ Synopsis

The B-lymphocyte repertoire can be divided into a primary repertoire of virgin B cells and a secondary repertoire of antigenically experienced cells. Self-tolerance requires that neither of these repertoires contains potentially active cells capable of high-affinity, anti-self antibody production. Recent work has proven that both the primary and the secondary repertoire can be functionally purged, and this mechanism may involve failure of appearance of anti-self clonotypes (clonal abortion) or defects in activation (clonal anergy).