The unique biology of germinal center B cells.

Germinal center (GC) B cells are the source of the high-affinity, class-switched antibodies required for protective immunity. The unique biology of GC B cells involves iterative rounds of antibody gene somatic hypermutation coupled to multiple selection and differentiation pathways. Recent advances in areas such as single cell and gene editing technologies have shed new light upon these complex and dynamic processes. We review these findings here and integrate them into the current understanding of GC B cell replication and death, the retention of high-affinity and class-switched B cells in the GC, and differentiation into plasma and memory cell effectors. We also discuss how the biology of GC responses relates to vaccine effectiveness and outline current and future challenges in the field.

Positive selection of IgG+ over IgM+ B cells in the germinal center reaction.

Positive selection of high-affinity B cells within germinal centers (GCs) drives affinity maturation of antibody responses. Here, we examined the mechanism underlying the parallel transition from immunoglobulin M (IgM) to IgG. Early GCs contained mostly unswitched IgM+ B cells; IgG+ B cells subsequently increased in frequency, dominating GC responses 14-21 days after antigen challenge. Somatic hypermutation and generation of high-affinity clones occurred with equal efficiency among IgM+ and IgG+ GC B cells, and inactivation of Ig class-switch recombination did not prevent depletion of IgM+ GC B cells. Instead, high-affinity IgG+ GC B cells outcompeted high-affinity IgM+ GC B cells via a selective advantage associated with IgG antigen receptor structure but independent of the extended cytoplasmic tail. Thus, two parallel forms of GC B-cell-positive selection, based on antigen receptor variable and constant regions, respectively, operate in tandem to ensure high-affinity IgG antibodies predominate in mature serum antibody responses.

CCR6 Defines Memory B Cell Precursors in Mouse and Human Germinal Centers, Revealing Light-Zone Location and Predominant Low Antigen Affinity.

Memory B cells (MBCs) and plasma cells (PCs) constitute the two cellular outputs of germinal center (GC) responses that together facilitate long-term humoral immunity. Although expression of the transcription factor BLIMP-1 identifies cells undergoing PC differentiation, no such marker exists for cells committed to the MBC lineage. Here, we report that the chemokine receptor CCR6 uniquely marks MBC precursors in both mouse and human GCs. CCR6+ GC B cells were highly enriched within the GC light zone (LZ), were the most quiescent of all GC B cells, exhibited a cell-surface phenotype and gene expression signature indicative of an MBC transition, and possessed the augmented response characteristics of MBCs. MBC precursors within the GC LZ predominantly possessed a low affinity for antigen but also included cells from within the high-affinity pool. These data indicate a fundamental dichotomy between the processes that drive MBC and PC differentiation during GC responses.

Germinal centers and autoantibodies.

Preventing self-reactive lymphocytes from participating in effector responses is fundamental to maintaining immunological self-tolerance and circumventing autoimmunity. A range of complementary mechanisms are known to act upon the primary B- and T-cell repertoires to this effect, eliminating or silencing lymphocytes expressing self-reactive antigen receptors generated through V(D)J recombination in early lymphoid precursors. In the case of B cells, secondary diversification of antigen receptor repertoire by somatic hypermutation (SHM) provides an additional challenge, especially because this occurs in germinal center (GC) B cells that are actively responding to antigen and primed for differentiation into antibody-producing plasma cells. While it is clear that self-tolerance mechanisms do act to prevent antibody production by self-reactive GC B cells, it is also apparent that most pathogenic autoantibodies carry somatic mutations and so have derived from a GC response. Recent advances in the analysis of autoantibody-producing cells associated with human autoimmune diseases together with insights gained from animal models have increased our understanding of the relationships between GCs, SHM and autoantibody production. Here we discuss these developments and focus in particular on how they have illuminated the genesis and pathogenesis of one archetypal autoantibody, rheumatoid factor.

B cells in the balance: Offsetting self-reactivity avoidance with protection against foreign.

Antibodies are theoretically limitless in their diversity and specificity to foreign antigens; however they are constrained by the need to avoid binding to self. Germinal centers (GC) allow diversification and maturation of the antibody response towards the foreign antigen. While self-tolerance mechanisms controlling self-reactivity during B cell maturation are well recognized, the mechanisms by which GCs balance self-tolerance and foreign binding especially in the face of cross-reactivity between self and foreign, remain much less well defined. In this review we explore the extent to which GC self-tolerance restricts affinity maturation. We present studies suggesting that the outcome is situationally dependent, affected by affinity and avidity to self-antigen, and the extent to which self-binding and foreign-binding are interdependent. While auto-reactive GC B cells can mutate away from self while maturing towards the foreign antigen, if no mutational trajectories allow for self-reactive redemption, self-tolerance prevails and GC responses to the foreign pathogen are restricted, except when self-tolerance checkpoints are relaxed. Finally, we consider whether polyreactivity is subject to the same level of restriction in GC responses, especially if polyreactivity is linked to an increase in foreign protection, as occurs in certain broadly neutralizing antibodies. Overall, the outcomes for GC B cells that bind self-antigen can range from redemption, transient relaxation in self-tolerance or restriction of the antibody response to the foreign pathogen.

Memory B cells are reactivated in subcapsular proliferative foci of lymph nodes.

Vaccine-induced immunity depends on the generation of memory B cells (MBC). However, where and how MBCs are reactivated to make neutralising antibodies remain unknown. Here we show that MBCs are prepositioned in a subcapsular niche in lymph nodes where, upon reactivation by antigen, they rapidly proliferate and differentiate into antibody-secreting plasma cells in the subcapsular proliferative foci (SPF). This novel structure is enriched for signals provided by T follicular helper cells and antigen-presenting subcapsular sinus macrophages. Compared with contemporaneous secondary germinal centres, SPF have distinct single-cell molecular signature, cell migration pattern and plasma cell output. Moreover, SPF are found both in human and mouse lymph nodes, suggesting that they are conserved throughout mammalian evolution. Our data thus reveal that SPF is a seat of immunological memory that may be exploited to rapidly mobilise secondary antibody responses and improve vaccine efficacy.

IgD attenuates the IgM-induced anergy response in transitional and mature B cells.

Self-tolerance by clonal anergy of B cells is marked by an increase in IgD and decrease in IgM antigen receptor surface expression, yet the function of IgD on anergic cells is obscure. Here we define the RNA landscape of the in vivo anergy response, comprising 220 induced sequences including a core set of 97. Failure to co-express IgD with IgM decreases overall expression of receptors for self-antigen, but paradoxically increases the core anergy response, exemplified by increased Sdc1 encoding the cell surface marker syndecan-1. IgD expressed on its own is nevertheless competent to induce calcium signalling and the core anergy mRNA response. Syndecan-1 induction correlates with reduction of surface IgM and is exaggerated without surface IgD in many transitional and mature B cells. These results show that IgD attenuates the response to self-antigen in anergic cells and promotes their accumulation. In this way, IgD minimizes tolerance-induced holes in the pre-immune antibody repertoire.