| Literature DB >> 8684487 |
M Matsumoto1, S F Lo, C J Carruthers, J Min, S Mariathasan, G Huang, D R Plas, S M Martin, R S Geha, M H Nahm, D D Chaplin.
Abstract
Affinity maturation by somatic hypermutation is thought to occur within germinal centres. Mice deficient in lymphotoxin-alpha (LT alpha-/- mice) have no lymph nodes or Peyer's patches, and fail to form germinal centres in the spleen. We tested whether germinal centres are essential for maturation of antibody responses to T-cell-dependent antigens. LT alpha-/- mice immunized with low doses of (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl-ovalbumin (NP-OVA) showed dramatically impaired production of high-affinity anti-NP IgG1. However, LT alpha-/- mice immunized with high doses of NP-OVA, even though they failed to produce germinal centres, manifested a high-affinity anti-NP IgG1 response similar to wild-type mice. Furthermore, when LT alpha-/- mice were multiply immunized with high doses of NP-OVA, the predominantly expressed anti-NP VH gene segment VH186.2 showed somatic mutations typical of affinity maturation. Thus, B-cell memory and affinity maturation are not absolutely dependent on the presence of germinal centres.Entities:
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Year: 1996 PMID： 8684487 DOI： 10.1038/382462a0
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nature ISSN： 0028-0836 Impact factor: 49.962