title: Control systems and decision making for antibody production.
abstract: This paper synthesizes recent progress toward understanding the integrated control systems and fail-safes that guide the quality and quantity of antibody produced by B cells. We focus on four key decisions: (1) the choice between proliferation or death in perifollicular B cells in the first 3 days after antigen encounter; (2) differentiation of proliferating perifollicular B cells into extrafollicular plasma cells or germinal center B cells; (3) positive selection of B cell antigen receptor (BCR) affinity for foreign antigen versus negative selection of BCR affinity for self antigen in germinal center B cells; and (4) survival versus death of antibody-secreting plasma cells. Understanding the engineering of these control systems represents a challenging future step for treating disorders of antibody production in autoimmunity, allergy and immunodeficiency.
authors.affiliation: John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. chris.goodnow@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Goodnow
authors.forename: Carola G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Vinuesa
authors.forename: Katrina L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Randall
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mackay
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brink
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology*; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D016923:Cell Death / Q000276:immunology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D056724:Immunity, Humoral / Q000276:immunology*; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell