The effect of age on the B-cell repertoire.
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.
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 10021, USA.
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D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000096:biosynthesis; D000917:Antibody Formation; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000276:immunology; D016175:B-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000254:growth & development; D002455:Cell Division; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000473:pathology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D015322:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte; D018858:Germinal Center / Q000166:cytology; D006410:Hematopoiesis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008231:Lymphopenia / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001323:Autoantibodies