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Interrogating Individual Autoreactive Germinal Centers by Photoactivation in a Mixed Chimeric Model of Autoimmunity
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Germinal center reaction

L J McHeyzer-Williams1, D J Driver, M G McHeyzer-Williams

  • 1Duke University Medical Center, Department of Immunology, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. mchey002@duke.edu

Current Opinion in Hematology
|January 4, 2001
PubMed

The germinal center reaction is one critical outcome of helper T-cell-dependent antigen-specific B-cell responses. Germinal center reactions are the culmination of an orchestrated series of intercellular information exchanges discussed here as the serial synapsis model of adaptive immunity. The main purpose of the germinal center reaction is the development of B-cell memory through iterative cycles of somatic antigen receptor diversification and the selection of B cells with receptors of best fit. Recent studies provide insight into the regulation of these complex processes in vivo with new information on the cellular organization of the memory B-cell compartment.

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