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Cellular choreography in the germinal center: new visions from in vivo imaging

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Abstract

Germinal centers (GC) are large aggregates of proliferating B lymphocytes within follicles of lymphoid tissue that form during adaptive immune responses. GCs are the source of long-lived B cells that form the basis for pathogen-specific lifelong B cell immunity. The complex architecture of these structures includes subdomains that differ significantly in their stromal cell and T lymphocyte subset composition. In part due to their structural complexity and potential to generate some lymphomas, much interest and many theories about GC dynamics have emerged. Here, we review recent research employing in vivo imaging that has begun to untangle some of the mysteries.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mark Shlomchik for critical reading of the manuscript and thoughtful discussion. This work was supported in part by grants from NIH grant 1R01AI080850-01A1 (AMH and SMK) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA5354/1–4 (AEH).

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  1. Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ), Berlin, 10117, Germany

    Anja E. Hauser

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Steven M. Kerfoot & Ann M. Haberman

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  1. Anja E. Hauser
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Correspondence to Ann M. Haberman.

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This article is published as part of the Special Issue on Immunoimaging of Immune System Function.

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Hauser, A.E., Kerfoot, S.M. & Haberman, A.M. Cellular choreography in the germinal center: new visions from in vivo imaging. Semin Immunopathol 32, 239–255 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-010-0214-z

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