Abstract
B-Lymphocytes (“B-cells”) look exactly like T-lymphocytes by common histologic techniques. Yet they are a distinct cell lineage, distinguished from T-cells by (1) their development, (2) their ability to synthesize immunoglobulin (no other cell does this), (3) their display of Ig molecules on their plasma membrane, where they serve as an identifying marker for B-cells as well as the B-cell’s receptor for specific antigens, (4) their precise anatomic location within lymphoid tissue, (5) their ability to capture antigens that bind to their surface Ig, and present them to CD4+ T-cells as peptide—class II major histocompatibility (MHC) complexes, thus activating the T-cells, and (6) their ability to evolve into “memory cells” that ensure that a second exposure to antigen will trigger a more effective antibody response than the first exposure (“immunologic memory”).
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Ashman, R.F. (2000). B-Lymphocytes. In: Tsokos, G.C. (eds) Principles of Molecular Rheumatology. Current Molecular Medicine, vol 1. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-018-6_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-018-6_13
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-61737-182-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-018-6
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