The Life of a B-Cell: Building the Army Flashcards
What is the general structure of the BCR? What are different ways the formula will be written?
Two heavy chains and two light chains, each with variable and constant regions.
H2L2, mu2,kappa2, or mu2lambda2
What features lend to the specificity of the BCR?
How is this acheived?
unique VDJh and VJl specific for ONE antigen.
This is achieved by allelic exclusion during the VDJ,VJ recombination stages
What are the four factors that lend to the diversity of B cells?
- combinatorial diversity- during VDJ rearrangement
- junctional diversity- joining sequences are different
- N&P nucleotides- noncoding and palindromic nucleotides are added at the junction
- Somatic mutation- after the Bcell has specificity for a particular antigen, mutations occur to increase the specificity for the antigen
What three things characterize a memory B-cell?
- somatic mutation and clonal selection of a particular Fab
- Ig heavy chain class switching (IgM to the other types)
- rapid response
What is the structure that helps the BCR transmit signal through the B-cell?
Iga and Igb (CD79) transmit the signal once a BCR binds and antigen by utilizing ITAMs (immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs)
What three CD molecules are on the surface of B cells that help them to be identified in clinical and histopath labs?
CD19, CD20, CD22
What CD molecule does the pluripotent stem cell use to be self-renewing?
CD34
What signal pushes the bone marrow stem cell to develop in the lymphoid lineage?
IL-7
What are the four stages of B-cell development?
Pro-B
Pre-B
immature B-cell
mature B-cell
What stage of B cell development is the first with B-cell specific markers?
Pro-B
What stage of B cell development has a single rearranged BCR heavy chain?
Pre-B
What stage of B cell development is the first to express a functional BCR that has not seen an antigen?
immature B cell
Where does final B-cell maturation occur?
secondary lymphoid organs (spleen, LN)
Where does fetal B-cell development take place?
fetal liver
When in the pregnancy do pre-B cells appear?
When in pregnancy does B-cell development switch to the bone marrow?
They appear toward the end of the first trimester.
Maturation switches from the liver to the bone marrow in the second trimester
What cellular marker is on over 50% of the newborns B-cells? What are these B cells called?
CD5 and the B-cells are called B1 cells (which are T1What -2 independent)
By what age is the B-cell compartment fully functional?
2years
In what stages of B-cell development would RAG enzymes be present?
Pro-B and Pre-B because these are the enzymes involved in VDJ and VJ rearrangement
In what stage of B-cell development does B-cell tolerance testing occur?
Immature B cell because it is testing to make sure the B-cell is not autoreactive.