Abstract
The small pre-B II cells, such as those that can be found in the bone marrow, form the direct precursor pool of immature B cells that first express IgM at their surface. Experiments by Osmond and his colleagues have shown that mice produce about 2 x 107 of these immature B cells per day [1]. Some of them are thought to exit bone marrow [2] and home to extrafollicular areas of the spleen [3]. At these sites in the spleen, B cells are still immature and can be distinguished from their mature counterparts by their half-life (3–4 days versus 6 weeks), their lower B220 and slgD and their higher HSA and slgM expression levels [4; 5]. Experiments by a number of investigators have shown that only 5–10% of the newly generated immature B cells are selected into the pool of long-lived mature B cells [1; 3; 4; 6; 7]. Why and how only such a small proportion of immature B cells is selected is largely unknown.
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Rolink, A.G., Melchers, F., Andersson, J. (1999). The Transition from Immature to Mature B Cells. In: Melchers, F., Potter, M. (eds) Mechanisms of B Cell Neoplasia 1998. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 246. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60162-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60162-0_5
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