title: Germinal center dynamics during acute and chronic infection.
abstract: The ability of the immune system to clear pathogens is limited during chronic virus infections where potent long-lived plasma and memory B-cells are produced only after germinal center B-cells undergo many rounds of somatic hypermutations. In this paper, we investigate the mechanisms of germinal center B-cell formation by developing mathematical models for the dynamics of B-cell somatic hypermutations. We use the models to determine how B-cell selection and competition for T follicular helper cells and antigen influences the size and composition of germinal centers in acute and chronic infections. We predict that the T follicular helper cells are a limiting resource in driving large numbers of somatic hypermutations and present possible mechanisms that can revert this limitation in the presence of non-mutating and mutating antigen.
authors.affiliation: 460 McBryde Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States . email: sherwin@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Erwin
authors.forename: Stanca M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ciupe
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000941:Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018858:Germinal Center / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens