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Regulation of Memory Antibody Levels: The Role of Persisting Antigen versus Plasma Cell Life Span

Cytos Biotechnology, Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland

Protective Ab levels can be maintained for years upon infection or vaccination. In this study, we studied the duration of Ab responses as a function of the life span of plasma cells and tested the role of persisting Ag in maintaining B cell memory. Our analysis of B cell responses induced in mice immunized with virus-like particles demonstrates the following: 1) Ab titers are long-lived, but decline continuously with a t_1/2 of 80 days, which corresponds to the life span of plasma cells; 2) the germinal center (GC) reaction, which lasts for up to 100 days, is dependent on Ag associated with follicular dendritic cells; and 3) early GCs produce massive numbers of plasma and memory B cell precursors, whereas the late Ag-dependent GCs are dispensable for the maintenance of Ab levels and B cell memory.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ D.G. and S.W.M. contributed equally to this work.

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Martin F. Bachmann, Cytos Biotechnology AG, Wagistrasse 25, CH-8952 Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland. E-mail address: martin.bachmann{at}cytos.com

³ Abbreviations used in this paper: FDC, follicular dendritic cell; AFC, Ab-forming cell; GC, germinal center; PNA, peanut agglutinin; VLP, virus-like particle; LT, lymphotoxin; LTR, LT receptor.

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