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Surface antigens are rapidly separated from bacterium‐sized microspheres in the subcapsular sinus and acquired by antigen‐specific follicular B cells
Author(s) -
Pape Kathryn A,
Catron Drew M,
Jenkins Marc K
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.1067.5
Subject(s) - antigen , antibody , follicular dendritic cells , lymph node , sinus (botany) , immune system , chemistry , immunology , b cell , biology , cell , antigen presenting cell , microbiology and biotechnology , t cell , biochemistry , botany , genus
Antibody production is critical for antimicrobial immunity. The initial step in this process is the binding of antigen to the B cell receptor. Yet, the size of many microbes prevents them from entering the lymph node follicles where naïve B cells reside. Here, we show that antigen‐specific follicular B cells rapidly acquired antigen, produced peptide:MHC II complexes, and secreted antibody in a T cell‐dependent fashion following subcutaneous injection of bacterium‐sized antigen‐coupled particles even though the particles were confined to the subcapsular sinus. This form of B cell antigen acquisition did not depend on dendritic cells or subcapsular sinus macrophages. These results suggest that proteins released from the surface of microbes directly access the follicles to initiate the humoral response.