Germinal Center
Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27806-0_607
Synonyms
Germ center.
Definition
Germinal centers are areas, predominantly found in secondary lymphoid tissues, were B cell proliferation and differentiation, memory generation, antibody isotype switching, and affinity maturation occurs upon stimulation by an antigen. These processes result in the generation of memory cells and plasma precursor cells.
Characteristics
General
B cell follicles are normally found in secondary lymphoid organs (spleen, lymph nodes, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues) and in the thymic medulla in some animal species. Under pathological conditions, they also can occur in the thymic medulla and in nonlymphoid organs, such as in the human thyroid gland in Hashimoto thyroiditis. Follicles in which no (auto)antigen-driven processes take place consist of recirculating, small resting virgin B lymphocytes in a network of follicular dendritic cells (FDCs). Such follicles are designated as primary follicles. During stimulation with antigen, germinal centers develop...
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References
- 1.Liu Y-J, Johnson GD, Gordon J, MacLennan ICM (1992) Germinal centers in T-cell-dependent antibody responses. Immunol Today 13:17–21PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 2.De Vinuesa CG, Cook MC, Ball J et al. (2000) Germinal centers without T cells. J Exp Med 191:485–494PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Hoshi H, Horie K, Tanaka K et al. (2001) Patterns of age-dependent changes in the numbers of lymph follicles and germinal centers in somatic and mesenteric lymph nodes in growing C57Bl/6 mice. J Anat 198:189–205Google Scholar
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