The effect of age on the B-cell repertoire. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The antibody repertoire changes with age. This change reflects, in part, the age-associated impairment in the production of a diverse population of naive B cells in the bone marrow and, in part, by the decreased diversification of B cells in the germinal center where affinity maturation and isotype switching takes place. B cell number is strictly regulated and despite the decreased output of B cells by the bone marrow does not decline during aging. Self-renewal of peripheral B cells is sufficient to assure the stability of peripheral B cell number. However, when B cell production is stressed as, for example, following drug-induced lymphopenia, the rate of recovery of B cell number as well as of B cell diversity is compromised in old compared to young mice. Finally, aging is associated with the appearance of B cell clonal expansions which not only limit the diversity of the B cell repertoire but very likely give rise to monoclonal serum immunoglobulins and B cell neoplasms.

publication date

  • July 1, 2000

Research

keywords

  • Aging
  • B-Lymphocyte Subsets

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0033854211

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1023/a:1006659401385

PubMed ID

  • 10939711

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 20

issue

  • 4