Insights into the Mechanisms of Antibody-Affinity Maturation and the Generation of the Memory B-Cell Compartment Using Genetically Altered Mice

The humoral immune system has the ability to acquire memory. Hence, it can recall a previous encounter with an antigen and consequently mount a efficient, specific, and rapid response to a second challenge by that same antigen. A critical aspect of this acquisition of memory is the establishment of a small pool of memory B cells during the latter phases of the primary immune response. In mice and humans, the key characteristics that distinguish antibodies expressed by memory B cells and naive B cells are that memory B cells express somatically hypermutated antibody V regions, and that memory B cells express antibodies that have higher affinities for antigen as compared to antibodies expressed during the primary immune response. The currently accepted model aimed to explain the recruitment of B cells into the memory compartment suggests that these cells follow a hypermutation and