title: The human spleen is a major reservoir for long-lived vaccinia virus-specific memory B cells.
abstract: The fact that you can vaccinate a child at 5 years of age and find lymphoid B cells and antibodies specific for this vaccination 70 years later remains an immunologic enigma. It has never been determined how these long-lived memory B cells are maintained and whether they are protected by storage in a special niche. We report that, whereas blood and spleen compartments present similar frequencies of IgG(+) cells, antismallpox memory B cells are specifically enriched in the spleen where they account for 0.24% of all IgG(+) cells (ie, 10-20 million cells) more than 30 years after vaccination. They represent, in contrast, only 0.07% of circulating IgG(+) B cells in blood (ie, 50-100,000 cells). An analysis of patients either splenectomized or rituximab-treated confirmed that the spleen is a major reservoir for long-lived memory B cells. No significant correlation was observed between the abundance of these cells in blood and serum titers of antivaccinia virus antibodies in this study, including in the contrasted cases of B cell-depleting treatments. Altogether, these data provide evidence that in humans, the two arms of B-cell memory--long-lived memory B cells and plasma cells--have specific anatomic distributions--spleen and bone marrow--and homeostatic regulation.
authors.affiliation: Inserum U783, Développement du Système Immunitaire, Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine, Site Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mamani-Matsuda
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cosma
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weller
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faili
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Staib
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garçon
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hermine
authors.forename: Odile
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Beyne-Rauzy
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fieschi
authors.forename: Jacques-Olivier
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Pers
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arakelyan
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Varet
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sauvanet
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paye
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Andrieu
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Godeau
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buffet
authors.forename: Claude-Agnès
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Reynaud
authors.forename: Jean-Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Weill
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D013156:Splenectomy; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G