The maturation of the immune response.
In a T-cell dependent immune response, the repertoire of antigen-activated B cells is diversified by a hypermutation mechanism. Only high-affinity variants are selected into the pool of memory cells. This maturation process takes place in a special micro-environment, the germinal centre. Here, Claudia Berek and Mike Ziegner discuss the mechanisms underlying these processes.
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D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000276:immunology; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology; D009154:Mutation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology