title: Resolve, revise, and relax: the 3 Rs of B cell repertoire adjustment.
abstract: Competition for limited, cell extrinsic survival factors is a general feature of peripheral selection checkpoints involved in B lymphocyte maturation and activation. Perhaps the best-characterized example involves BLyS (B lymphocyte stimulator), which modulates the size and composition of mature naïve B cell pools, but evidence for analogous competitive checkpoints is emerging for both germinal center B cells and plasma cells. Here we discuss how deliberate alteration of BLyS levels might be used to manipulate B cell repertoire selection in order to restore self-tolerance in autoimmunity, remodel the repertoire to accommodate neo-self antigens introduced through transplantation and gene therapy, or expand repertoire diversity to reveal novel, therapeutically useful specificities.
authors.affiliation: Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6082, United States.
authors.forename: Jean L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Scholz
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Cancro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity; D053264:B-Cell Activating Factor / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D053264:B-Cell Activating Factor