Home > Browse Issues > Vol.37 No.3
A New ICOSL-driven Mechanism for Germinal Center Selection
Liu Dan, Xu Heping, Qi Hai*
Laboratory of Dynamic Immunobiology, School of Medicine, Institute for Immunology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Abstract: Abstract The germinal center (GC) reaction supports affinity-based B cell competition and generation of highaffinity plasma cells. Follicular T-helper (Tfh) cells promote GC formation by delivering help through long-lasting， stable conjugation with antigen-specific B cells， but how they regulate GC B cell competition and selection is not clear. Here we show that GC T-B interactions are short and reiterative in nature and controlled by ICOSL-ICOS interactions between the B and T cells in a feedforward manner so that high-affinity B cells can be rapidly selected into the PC (plasma cell) compartment. These new findings represent an important leap forward in our understanding of the GC selection.
CN
EN