Age-related accumulation of memory cells in mouse Peyer's patches

The development of memory cells seems to take place in the germinal centres, which are chronically present in Peyer's patches (PPs). We report here age-associated changes in the lymphocyte compartment and in the number of PPs of unimmunised mice. Mice 4 weeks old do not exhibit well constituted germinal centres, but just only 1 week later, the mice develop a normal germinal centre reaction, which is maintained until late ages (mice 30 weeks old), to decrease thereafter in older mice. In addition, we also show that memory cells accumulate in PPs in old mice, being the main population CD44(+) CD62L(-) CD49d(+) CD40(+) CD25(-) B cells. These data suggest that memory B cells tend to accumulate in PPs in ageing mice, even when the GC reaction has already decreased.