B cell activation and antibody function

Question 1

naive B cells

Answer 1

• bear cell surface IgM
• do not secrete antibody

Question 2

plasmablast

Answer 2

• differentiated B cells that have begun to secrete antibodies
• have not yet lost the capacity to proliferate
• still bear cell surface BCRs

Question 3

plasma cells

Answer 3

• differentiated B cells that can no longer divide
• bear little to no cell surface immunoglobulin
• rapidly secrete large numbers of antibody molecules

Question 4

affinity maturation

Answer 4

B cells can undergo a cycle of somatic mutation and selection that results in a remarkable increase by over 10K fold in affinity for antigen

only in germinal center

Question 5

class switching

Answer 5

B cells can keep their valuable antigen binding region and switch their class - altering and expanding the function of their secreted antibodies

only in germinal center

Question 6

somatic hypermutation

Answer 6

random mutation targeted to the variable regions of the B cell receptor

Question 7

activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)

Answer 7

responsible for each of these somatic changes in DNA sequence

enzyme

Question 8

IL-4 contributes to a switch to ___

Answer 8

IgE