Specific Antibody Forming Cells in Lymphoid Follicles of Spleen: An Aspect of the Late Immune Response

Abstract

Previously we described the pathway followed by antigen-reactive B cells that are differentiating into antibody-forming cells during the early primary and secondary immune response in the spleen (1). B cells following this ’differentiation pathway’ start in the marginal zone (MZ) and enter the outer periarteriolar lymphocyte sheath (PALS). There they migrate along the border with the MZ to the sites where small sheaths of lymphoid tissue around the terminal arterioles traverse the MZ. They follow these sheaths on their way to the red pulp, leave the spleen and enter the circulation. Follicles and their germinal centres, which are generally assumed to play a role in the generation of B-memory cells seemed not to be an obliged station on this route.