Latest Germinal center Stories
Germinal centers are sites in the organs of the lymphatic system, formed during the course of an immune response to infection, where B cells intensely proliferate and modify their DNA in order to produce antibodies specific for the pathogen.
An organism's ability to make new antibodies and use them to optimize its own immune defenses is of central importance in the fight against pathogens.
A discovery by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers in Melbourne, Australia, reported in today's edition of Science, is set to rewrite a long-held belief about how the body's immune system establishes its memory.
Expression of a single gene programs an immune system helper T cell that fuels rapid growth and diversification of antibodies in a cellular structure implicated in autoimmune diseases and development of B cell lymphoma, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.
By snipping out and analyzing tiny samples of patients' tonsils, scientists have identified a key cellular checkpoint that is somehow bypassed in lupus patients, where harmful immune cells that normally are squelched by the body are mistakenly granted access.
- A person who stands up for something, as contrasted to a bystander who remains inactive.
- One of the upright handlebars on a traditional Inuit sled.