Hypergammaglobulinemia and defective humoral immunity are hallmarks of HIV-1 infection. Naive B cells have been recently suggested as the major source of hypergammaglobulinemia in chronic viral infections. We recently reported that HIV-1-infected patients carry low levels of memory B cells. Here we studied whether defects in the naive and memory B cells in HIV-1-infected patients translated int...

Immunological memory has long considered to be harbored in B cells that express high-affinity class-switched IgG. IgM-positive memory B cells can also be generated following immunization, although their physiological role has been unclear. In this study, we show that bacterial infection elicited a relatively large population of IgM memory B cells that were uniquely identified by their surface e...

Background & Aim: In traditional medicine, Boswellia species gum resin known as Frankincense or Olibanum, has been administrated in elderly for enhancement of memory and also in pregnant women to increase memory and intelligence of progeny. However, it has been rarely scientifically documented so far. We have previously reported that maternal administration of Frankincense during lacta...

Background & Aim: In traditional medicine, Boswellia species gum resin known as Frankincense or Olibanum, has been administrated in elderly for enhancement of memory and also in pregnant women to increase memory and intelligence of progeny. However, it has been rarely scientifically documented so far. We have previously reported that maternal administration of Frankincense during lacta...

INTRODUCTION In chronic inflammatory disorders, B cells can contribute to tissue damage by autoantibody production and antigen presentation to T cells. Here, we have characterized synovial fluid and tissue B-cell subsets in patients with oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), an issue not addressed before in detail. METHODS B cells from synovial fluid (SF) and peripheral blood (P...

Studies using both human and murine lymphoid cells have established that the predominant immunoglobulin isotypes on the cell surface of B lymphocytes are IgM and IgD (1-6). Moreover, the majority of B cells express both isotypes simultaneously (2, 3, 79). A minority of B cells bear surface IgG (10, 11). Recently, several investigators have studied the immune function of primed (memory) B cells ...

IL-27 is a novel heterodimeric cytokine of the IL-12 family that plays an important role in the regulation of T cell responses. Its role on human B cells has not been previously studied. In this study, we show that both chains of the IL-27 receptor complex, IL-27R and gp130, are constitutively expressed at the surface of naive and memory human tonsillar B cells, and are induced on germinal cent...

Activated B cells express high levels of class II MHC and costimulatory molecules and are nearly as effective as dendritic cells in their APC ability. Yet, their importance as APC in vivo is controversial and their role, if any, in the development of CD4 memory is unknown. We compared responses of CD4 cells from normal and B cell-deficient mice to keyhole limpet hemocyanin over 6 mo and observe...

Lymphotoxin alpha-deficient (LTalpha-/-) mice show dramatically reduced IgG responses after either primary or secondary immunizations with sheep red blood cells (SRBC). When splenocytes from SRBC-primed wild-type donor mice were infused into irradiated naive wild-type recipient mice, they generated a robust memory IgG response, but not when infused into LTalpha-/- recipients, indicating that th...